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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27204103">Waiting on a Ghost</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmouth/pseuds/Shadowmouth'>Shadowmouth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bobby is the token straight but we don't get to see that, Everyone Is Gay, M/M, Multi, Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Past Child Abuse, Season/Series 01, Slow Burn, Tagged teen and up for language babes, Teen Angst, basically parallel to canon, demiromantic Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), its poorly written but there, mild use of slurs, no beta we die like men, no one is straight, yet still an au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:03:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,542</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27204103</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmouth/pseuds/Shadowmouth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a ghost isn't terrible. Being a ghost that people can see when you play music is pretty great. But adding feelings that you didn't know you had really puts a wrench in the works.</p><p>A.K.A. My Reggie/Luke rewrite of season one because why not.</p><p>Previously titled "Heavy Teen Angst"<br/>New title from the song of the same name by Left at London (Edit: 11/30/20)<br/>New summary (Edit: 1/3/21)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Julie Molina &amp; Reggie, Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>177</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Welcome to Paradise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Um, first chapter, hopefully I can come back and edit this later. Each chapter is going to revolve around a song, and there will be about four songs per part. This will take place before season one to a bit after the last episode. I'm sure you'll get it. I'll make my playlists public and share them when I finish each part. Please let me know what you think, I appreciate it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Being Luke Patterson’s best friend had its perks. He was supportive, he rarely took no for an answer-- which could be a bad thing at times-- and was fiercely protective of the people he cared about; one of those people just so happened to be Reggie. They had known each other long before Reggie’s parents started fighting. They had met at the age of six at their first day of “big-kid” school, as Luke had called it when he was gushing about his excitement, Reggie’s parents started fighting two years later. At first, Reggie didn’t know what to think of it, and he figured that it wasn’t going to be a long-term thing, they had probably just had a bad day.</p><p>After the first year, he figured it would be staying for a while longer than he had thought.</p><p>As soon as he got to age 10, he knew that his parents were never going to be normal again. They fought all the time, and recently it was Reggie’s own fault; he kept bringing home Fs and his parents only used that information to fuel their arguments. Reggie never got in the way when they were fighting.</p><p>When he turned 12, he started sneaking out when the fight’s got too much. His friends knew about the fighting, so he’d usually end up swaddled in blankets at Bobby, Alex, or Luke’s house, and sometimes all four of them were there. His friends didn’t know how bad it could be, they just knew that the fighting was unbearable for Reggie.</p><p>One night, during his eighth-grade year, his father came home late, he was clearly drunk. As soon as he walked into the kitchen the fighting started. His yelling was indecipherable to Reggie, who had felt the air leave his lungs at the first sound of a raised voice. He didn’t know what was happening with his parents, but he could tell that it was getting heated very quickly, and when he saw his father raise his hand, he acted without thinking and stepped between the pair. He came crashing back into reality as he felt the harsh sting of his father’s open palm meeting his left cheek, the force knocking him to the ground. Everything was harshly quiet, and then his mother was yelling again, at his father for hitting him.</p><p>Reggie, still reeling from the altercation, laid on the ground, only being spurred into movement when his father picked him up by the shirt and began to yell at him instead. His ears were ringing, and it was hard to get any information, all he could make out was vague words about acting like a man and taking a hit like one. When his father found it clear that Reggie wasn’t going to respond, he pulled his fist back, barely getting restrained by his wife. In the blink of an eye, his father’s ire was trained on a new victim, and Reggie could do nothing, so he ran out the front door, acting all the opposite of the man his father thought he should be. Ironically, it was raining as he ran through the street, following the memorized path to Bobby’s house, he lived the closest and that was easier at this time of night. Bobby’s mother let him in, worriedly giving him an icepack and ushering him to Bobby’s room, handing him a stack of blankets and a pillow on the way.</p><p>Luke, Bobby, and Alex didn’t learn how bad Reggie’s parent fighting was until they were 15.</p><p>It was halfway through their first year of high school, Reggie had invited the boys over to his house to hang out and maybe try to study for their upcoming math test. Most of the time, his parents didn’t fight when he had friends over, but they must have forgotten, because an hour after they had settled themselves around Reggie’s room, there was shouting. It was loud, and Reggie could almost feel the build-up to his father’s anger boiling over into a fistfight when there was a loud crack and more yelling. Hearing the fighting and violence had caused Reggie to curl in on himself, his friends forgotten to his fear.</p><p>He lifted his head when he heard the opening chords of Welcome to Paradise come from his record player. Luke was turning the volume up to try and cover up the fighting, Bobby was gathering blankets and pillows, and Alex was sitting in front of him to try and calm him down. Bobby came back over, dropping his supplies onto the floor. He and Luke begin to set up a small blanket fort for the four of them as Alex continues to soothe Reggie.</p><p>By the time they have it assembled, Reggie is breathing normally, and he can’t hear his parent’s yelling through the loud noise of Green Day. Alex helped him stand and brought him over to the entrance of the fort. They helped Reggie in first before climbing in themselves and creating a big cuddle pile with Reggie front and center. That night was one of the first times he had fallen asleep peacefully in his own home after he turned eight, and it was all because he had his best friends by his side, looking out for him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>“I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home, welcome to paradise”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. What's My Age Again?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow, here we go, boys. It is very late where I am, and I am very tired. I don't know how I managed to even write these. I feel like I might just make the story and then edit what I need to, we'll see.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie got his first girlfriend when he was sixteen.</p>
<p>His friends had already dated people, and they usually gushed about girls they found attractive or whoever they were dating. So, of course, Reggie tried to gush about his girlfriend, Daisy, but it doesn’t feel right. He can’t place why he feels nothing when he thinks about her; he does think she is pretty and he could just sit and stare at her symmetrical face for hours, but he doesn’t feel the attraction that Bobby seems to feel when he talks about the last girl that he got to sleep with him. He doesn’t feel the happiness that Luke feels when he talks about the date that he went on with his girlfriend. He definitely doesn’t feel what Alex feels when he talks about how soft this girl’s hair is, going on about how intimate it felt to have her head laying in his lap as they talked and he ran his fingers across her scalp. He does understand what they mean when he puts it in the context of his bass, something that has become a big part of his life in the last year.</p>
<p>He had started playing to distract himself from his parent’s fighting, and now the boys were itching to get him to join their band.</p>
<p>Bobby, Alex, and Luke had been playing together for a while, they hadn’t felt able to try and get any gigs without first having a bassist, and now that their friend was playing, it felt perfect to goad him into playing. After a solid week of puppy eyes from his friends he finally agreed, which lead Reggie to find himself in his current predicament.</p>
<p>He had invited Daisy to their practice before they had a gig at a small record store. Well, she had invited herself and Reggie couldn’t disagree because she seemed put out that the other boys would invite their girls but not her.</p>
<p>The rehearsal was going ok, at water breaks Daisy would peck Reggie’s cheek and tell him how good he sounded; Bobby’s girlfriend was also there, and she kept cheering from her seat on the couch, she would hang off Bobby during breaks.</p>
<p>It took about three songs for Reggie to really get into the feeling, and during Now or Never he went over to share Luke’s microphone. It wasn’t a new development, they had been doing that since they started, but it seemed that Daisy did not enjoy it when Reggie looked over to her and saw a pout on her face.</p>
<p>They played two more songs before they decided to call it a night. Reggie went over to Daisy and asked her what she thought, the response he got was short and she seemed annoyed at something, not to mention that she kept glaring in Luke’s direction.</p>
<p>Reggie brushed it off, offering his hand as they called goodbyes to the group and went on their way. The walk back to Daisy’s house was quiet, and Reggie was starting to pick up on a tension growing between the two.</p>
<p>After another block, Reggie pulled her to a stop to try and figure out why she was simmering, living around fighting parents heightened his ability to tell when yelling was close.</p>
<p>“Daisy, what’s wrong?”</p>
<p>She scoffed at the question. “Nothing, Reggie,”</p>
<p>“Are you sure, you seem really off?”</p>
<p>She glared at him for a second, before she let it out, “What is going on between you and Luke?”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“You know what I’m talking about, you look at him the way I wish you would look at me, you talk more about him when we’re together than about anything else, he’s all you think about,” She drops his hand and crosses her arms across her chest as if trying to comfort herself before the worst has even begun. “so, I know something is going on, and I want you to tell me.”</p>
<p>“Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Luke is just a friend; I don’t look at him any different than I do you.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I see, then I guess that this isn’t going to work,” She takes a small step back, distancing herself more.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Have you heard yourself, Reggie? You only look at me as a friend. Thanks for walking me home, I’ll see you around.” Daisy doesn’t wait for a response before she starts walking again, leaving Reggie standing on the sidewalk, a block from her house.</p>
<p>“Dammit, you idiot,” Reggie berates himself, slapping a palm to his forehead and scuffing his feet along the concrete as he works his way to his own house.</p>
<p>+++</p>
<p>Reggie gets his second girlfriend two weeks later. She is pretty, like Daisy, and she really enjoys seeing Sunset Curve rehears, she doesn’t have anything to say about Reggie and Luke’s apparent “looks” that Daisy mentioned. But nothing can stay comfortable forever.</p>
<p>After a month of dating, she confronts him as they are walking along the beach.</p>
<p>“Reg, why haven’t you kissed me yet?”</p>
<p>“What?” Is Reggie’s smart reply.</p>
<p>“Why haven’t we kissed yet?”</p>
<p>“You wanted to?” She looks appalled at that response.</p>
<p>“You haven’t? Is it because you don’t think I’m pretty?”</p>
<p>“No, of course, you’re pretty,” Reggie tries to soothe her. “it’s just that, I’m not ready,”</p>
<p>“Seriously, you’re sixteen. You aren’t ready for a kiss? It’s not like I’m asking for sex, Reggie.” She’s angry.</p>
<p>“Well, I don’t really want to do that either, to be quite honest.” Apparently, she doesn’t take that bit of information well, because as quickly as he had said it he’s feeling the sharp sting of a slap across his cheek and he sees Regan stomping off across the beach, which is a very difficult thing to do.</p>
<p>After his first two girlfriends, Reggie doesn’t go after anyone, and he doesn’t tell his friends why they broke up, he just lives in the calm solitude of not having to dote or be doted on by another person besides his friends.</p>
<p>
  <strong>“What the hell is wrong with me.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. You're My Best Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This one is a bit shorter, but it feels right for this chapter. I really don't have a posting schedule, just as I get them done will they be posted. So, don't be expecting everyday updates. But, I'll do my best to try and get at least one a week.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s no secret that Luke and Reggie are close. Everyone saw it from the moment that they started babbling to each other on their first day of first grade. And everyone continues to see it as they grow.</p>
<p>Like, when they are 9, and one of the notorious school bullies came up to them and tried to intimidate Reggie out of his lunch money. Luke immediately took his place between the two, trying his own intimidation against the bully to get him to go away. Now, that may not have worked perfectly, but it was obvious Luke was fiercely protective of Reggie.</p>
<p>Then there was the obvious. Whenever Reggie would end up at Luke’s house when his parents fighting got too much, Luke would always hold him to his chest. Bobby and Alex never did that, though that didn’t make them worse friends. Reggie just knew that Luke had the proper comfort he would need when he needed it.</p>
<p>So, it comes as no surprise that the first place Luke ends up after running away from home is Reggie’s window. And it is also no surprise that Reggie ends up holding Luke to his chest as he cries from the aftermath of the fight with his mom.</p>
<p>Reggie lets him cry, rubbing his hand through his hair as his own mother used to when he was smaller. It takes Luke an hour to wear himself out to the point that he’s snoring on Reggie’s chest, not bothered by his dry eyes and running nose.</p>
<p>The next morning, thankfully a Sunday, Reggie wakes up to find Luke digging through his vinyl collection.</p>
<p>“Hey, what’re you looking for?” His voice startles Luke, who visibly jumps. He composes himself quickly and turns a warm smile to him.</p>
<p>“I was just looking for that Green Day album I played a few years ago.” Luke turns around to go back to his digging.</p>
<p>“Oh, it should be on the deck,” Reggie says, moving over to press the start button.</p>
<p>“Sick,”</p>
<p>The two sit silently for a bit, letting the record wash over them.</p>
<p>“Hey, Reg,” Luke speaks up after a few songs have played.</p>
<p>“What’s up, Luke?”</p>
<p>“Thank you, for letting me stay last night, and for being my friend,”</p>
<p>“Of course, dude. You can count on me, I’m here for you, whenever you may need it.”</p>
<p>Luke just smiles at him and that ends the conversation, the boys go back to listening to Green Day, reclining around Reggie’s room and falling into the music.</p>
<p>
  <strong>“You make me live.”</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. American Pie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Solid 875 words. I took some liberties with how the beginning scene worked out, so please don't get mad at me. If any of you guys see something that should be changed though like if there's a line that is too OOC, let me know, please. And this is the end of part one!  Hopefully, this link to the playlist will work: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zbnKaN0PhcmmvXRMmyAPy?si=didUEwo7T_2XdsOCtXH2fw</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They had done it; they finally got a gig at the Orpheum. It was <em>the</em> show anyone that was anyone could play, and they were sold out. It was a dream come true; it was Sunset Curve’s way into the light. Soon, they would be playing bigger shows and would have their own tour.</p><p>Everyone was excited and nervous, Especially Alex who kept pacing across the green room.</p><p>“Yo, dude, calm down. We haven’t even had soundcheck yet, it’ll be fine.” Bobby tries to placate him.</p><p>“I know, but this is all so intense. Biggest crowd yet, you know?” His eyes seem a bit frantic as he looks at Bobby.</p><p>“Of course, but you don’t see me worrying about it. Just take some deep breaths, everything will be fine. You got this man,” Bobby stands and pats Alex on the shoulder. “I’m gonna go find a quick lunch, meet you guys back here for soundcheck.” And then he leaves the room.</p><p>“So, how are you guys?” Alex asks, his voice is still a bit shaky, but he is trying to take calming breaths as Bobby had mentioned.</p><p>“Pretty excited, I mean, it’s the Orpheum!” Luke barely manages to not flail his limbs everywhere as he does a joyful jump.</p><p>“I’m doing ok, definitely not as pumped as Luke, or as nervous as you, Alex,” Reggie chuckles, “but I do feel like I’m not here, this is unreal.” He sighs as he leans against the back of the couch.</p><p>“It is, and we have soundcheck in an hour, and then the show in three. How are you guys not super pumped?”</p><p>“Well, unlike you, Luke, we aren’t powerhouses that have constant energy. You are literally buzzing, right now.” Reggie jokes.</p><p>“Right, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky. I’m sure you’re so calm about this.”</p><p>“Well, I am, thank you very much,”</p><p>The two continue their repartee, and Alex seems to relax at the easy flow of his friends’ teasing.</p><p>+++</p><p>As soon as Bobby comes back, seemingly sated from his lunch, they go on for their soundcheck. They play through three songs, ending with Now or Never, which gets them loud applause from the staff that is setting up the venue.</p><p>“That was really good. I’ve seen a lot of bands play here, even been in a couple myself, but that was good.” The woman cleaning up a table in the back says.</p><p>Bobby goes up to flirt with her, and she seems charmed. Charmed enough that the other three can come up and tease him.</p><p>“Hey, we’re gonna go get some street dogs before the show, you coming?” Luke asks.</p><p>“Nah, I could never hurt an animal,” Bobby replies, having to shove Luke off of him when he gives him a wet willy.</p><p>“Well, since you liked it so much, here’s our demo and one t-shirt, size beautiful,” Reggie smirks, barely catching Luke’s dumbfounded face in the corner of his eye. “I’m Reggie, by the way.”</p><p>“Alex,”</p><p>“Luke,”</p><p>“And, I’m Bobby,” He already sounds really infatuated to Reggie, and it’s given away when he pushes the three to leave before Luke can embarrass him.</p><p>“He had a burger for lunch,” Luke teases Bobby as he passes, Reggie and Alex behind him.</p><p>“Still anxious, Al?” Reggie asks once they make it into the alley behind the building.</p><p>“Not really, that soundcheck was really good.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m so ready to play to big crowds, getting them to feel the music. It’s gonna be sick,” Luke muses, walking backward down the alley now.</p><p>“Sick enough to keep you from tripping over yourself when you walk?” Reggie snorts as Luke does just that, almost falling backward onto the asphalt.</p><p>“Haha, we’ll see who’s laughing when you stumble over yourself with a pretty girl.” Luke sounds annoyed, but the smile on his face says the opposite.</p><p>“Speaking of pretty girls,” Reggie notices the girls standing outside the Orpheum and stops to give them the last few Sunset Curve shirts that he has on him, before continuing on his way.</p><p> Luckily, they don’t have to travel far to find the alleyway barbecue. They easily pay for their food and go about adding toppings.</p><p>“Guys, I’m still not over it, do you know how many bands have played here and gotten huge? We’re gonna be legends.” Luke enthuses. “Eat up boys, because tonight everything changes.” They tap their hot dogs together in a cheer before taking their first bites.</p><p>“That’s a new flavor,” Alex comments.</p><p>“Chill, man, street dogs haven’t killed us yet,” Reggie says calmly, and they brush it off, going for another bite.</p><p>“You know, maybe you were right,” Reggie moans, clutching his stomach before leaning over the side of the couch to vomit.</p><p>“Yeah, definitely,” Luke simply leans forward to release his guts, feeling himself heat up. Alex simply makes an affirmative noise before following suit.</p><p>Within no time at all an ambulance has been called and the three boys are put on stretchers in the back. They don’t make it to the hospital, they simply feel themselves go lifeless and then find themselves in a dark room, where Alex begins to cry when they realize what has happened.</p><p>
  <strong>“Singing, this’ll be the day that I die.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Call It In The Air</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Part Two! Please do not ask how I managed to write five chapters within the span of one day, they are short and I don't want to talk about it. I know some chapters may be a bit more reliant on the episodes than others, and that is simply because I am a poor writer. In other news, I may totally rewrite this when I have the whole thing done, so enjoy this shit show.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Suddenly appearing in 2020, 25 years after they had died, which felt like mere minutes, was jarring, especially when a girl was screaming at them, but overall, it felt amazingly nice to be somewhere familiar, as opposed to that dark room where nothing happened for a really long time.</p><p>“So, uh, this is nice, right? We’re back home?” Reggie chuckles nervously.</p><p>“Yeah, but something doesn’t feel right,” Alex says.</p><p>“Forget about that, we’re at the studio again,” Luke tries encouraging them.</p><p>“Well,” Alex is cut off by the big door opening again and the girl entering, holding up a crucifix like a weapon.</p><p>“Are you still here?” She looks around the room apprehensively, keeping her hands in front of her. “I don’t know what you are, but you better be gone,”</p><p>“Uh, still here,” Luke says, eliciting a new scream from the girl. “Woah, calm down.” His hands go up in a calming gesture.</p><p>“Uh, how do we get her to stop?” Reggie whispers to Alex.</p><p>“Let someone with a softer touch handle this,” Alex pushes Luke back.</p><p>“Ok, look, you are in our studio. Thanks for keeping it looking nice, but you can leave now.” He steps too close to the girl, apparently, because she thrusts her crucifix towards him, and her hand goes right through him.</p><p>“How did you do that?” She only seems to be more freaked out.</p><p>“Look, we’re in a band, Sunset Curve, last night was supposed to be a really big night for us,” Luke ignores her question, if she doesn't understand what they are at this point, she'll get there.</p><p>Reggie watches the girl as she pulls some weird square from her pocket. He idly wonders what it is, about to ask when Luke does for him.</p><p>“What is that?”</p><p>“A phone?” She says it so matter-of-factly that it seems she thinks they are dumb.</p><p>“Who are ya calling?” Alex asks, taking Reggie’s second question.</p><p>“No one, I’m looking up sunset curve?” she seems unsure of the name. “Well, you did die, just not last night.”</p><p>“What?” Reggie finally gets the chance to be the question asker, and he revels in the feeling.</p><p>“You guys died in 1995, that is 25 years ago.”</p><p>“But the only thing we did after we died was go into that weird black room, and that was only for, like, an hour.” Luke rubs his face, a common gesture Reggie saw when he was thinking.</p><p>“I’m just telling you what my phone says,” She turns her screen around to show them the article. Reggie is absolutely boggled by the small device; he can’t comprehend how it is showing this.</p><p>Right as Reggie is about to ask another question, a voice interrupts him again.</p><p>“Dad wants you to stop being weird and come eat,” It’s a small boy that enters the studio, presumably looking for the girl.</p><p>“Tell dad I’ll be right in,” She sighs. Reggie takes notice of how he didn’t mention the three of them.</p><p>“Look, you guys haven’t been here for a long time, but this isn’t your studio anymore,” The girl proclaims. “So, you’re going to have to leave,”</p><p>“No way, this is our home, and we’re staying,” Luke fires back. The two glared at each other, fiery gazes trying to get the other to back down.</p><p>“You’re out by tomorrow,” She says with finality.</p><p>“Wait, but” Luke quickly retraces his argument upon seeing her glare again, she reminds Reggie of Emily, she would always get that look with him and Luke if she caught them sneaking food to his room. “we didn’t get your name.”</p><p>“I’m Julie,”</p><p>“Nice to meet you, I’m Luke, this is Reggie and Alex,” Luke gives them a small jazz hands introduction. Julie gives them a sarcastic smile and leaves the studio.</p><p>“Julie seems nice,” Reggie smiles, not sure what to make of his bandmate’s confused stares.</p><p>“Did, you miss the part where she kicked us out?” Alex asks. Reggie must think back over their conversation before he realizes that she did kick them out. “Yeah,”</p><p>They look around the studio, taking in the addition of the plants in the back and poking at the piano.</p><p>“Yo, do you think any of our old stuff is still here?” Luke asks as he climbs to the loft.</p><p>“Probably not, I mean, who’s gonna keep a bunch of random things.” Reggie points out, though he does follow Luke up to check. The first thing he sees when he gets up completely changes his mind.</p><p>“They kept my bass?” He exclaims, rushing over to it.</p><p>“No way, my electric is still here,” Luke sounds just as shocked. “Alex, dude, I think I see some of your drum kits,” Without saying a word Alex rushes up to the loft.</p><p>Over the next twenty minutes, they find that they can still touch their instruments and they go about setting them up, figuring that they were ghosts, nobody would hear them anyway.</p><p>“1, 2, 1 2 3 4,” Alex counts them off and they start playing. Reggie feels the freest since he died, being able to play his bass again is almost cathartic, even though it feels like it has been no time since he put his down. And then Julie comes in and they learn that people can hear them, and that changes everything, it’s all they’ve wanted, Luke’s wanted, to connect with people, to have them be heard. Then they’re being told they have to leave and Julie is walking away.</p><p>“Let me,” Luke says, focusing on poofing himself into Julie’s path. Reggie shrugs, going to the door to try and listen to what they’re saying. He hears Luke’s impassioned speech, but once they hear about her mom passing, they come out.</p><p>They connect with her about the music, and she changes her mind, telling them they can stay. They celebrate with fist bumps and excited jumping, running back to the studio to quietly play their music again.</p><p>When they hear footsteps coming towards the garage again, they hide on instinct, not sure if Julie has changed her mind again and has decided that they can’t actually stay there. When she comes in they see her checking to see if they’re around, (Luke got them to lay on the floor of the loft) before going over to the piano and looking at the song her mom wrote her. And then she’s playing and it’s some of the best Reggie’s ever heard.</p><p>Reggie has to watch her, becoming entranced with her movements, unable to move his eyes away.</p><p>When she finishes he finally looks over to Luke and Alex and the look on their faces likely mirrors his own, one of shock and amazement. It seems unanimous that Julie has serious talent.</p><p>
  <strong>“No way to retrace all your good days add them up.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Through the Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fuck, that took days. I just want to say, that I kin Reggie because we are both himbos that play the bass. Anyway, school is a bitch and this is super long. Hope you enjoy it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Learning that Julie had gotten kicked out of her music program felt like a slap to the face do Reggie. Julie sounded amazing; he couldn’t see why anyone would not want her in their class. He had to find a way to help her get back in, he wasn’t sure just how he would do it yet, but he would figure it out.</p><p>The three of them ended up lounging around the studio, Luke was slaving over his guitar and working on a song presumably, and Alex was mindlessly tapping on his drums. Reggie was laying across the couch, restlessly going over what he could do to help Julie, but he kept coming up blank.</p><p>“Hey, guys?” Reggie says.</p><p>“What?” Luke asks.</p><p>“Do you think we should do something to help Julie, I mean, she helped us get music back, shouldn’t we do the same for her?”</p><p>“I was thinking about that too,” Alex answers. “Did you come up with anything?”</p><p>“I got nothing, I was hoping you guys could get something,”</p><p>“What if we go check out her school and see what the deal is?” Luke suggests.</p><p>“Yes! That sounds like a good starting point. Let’s go.” Reggie jumps up excitedly, ready to poof himself out, Luke right behind him.</p><p>“Wait, guys, we don’t even know where she goes to school, there are so many out here, and what if they’ve changed since we died.” Alex points out.</p><p>“Shit, you’re right. Should we look around her room or something then?” Luke asks.</p><p>“Sure, that seems reasonable,” Alex nods, and the three of them set off for the house.</p><p>Once they got in the house they stealthy made sure that her dad or brother wasn’t around to see anything move on its own, and went to work looking through mail and papers scattered across their table to find anything useful.</p><p>“Why are there so many flyers for music schools everywhere?” Reggie thinks out loud as he sorts through a pile of paper.</p><p>Neither of his friends gives him an actual answer, just giving a simple grunt of recognition as they continue through their own piles.</p><p>“Ah-ha!” Luke exclaims after a few minutes of searching.</p><p>“Well?” Alex asks, moving to see what he found.</p><p>“It’s a letter from her school, now we know where it is.” He seems smug as he holds it up towards Reggie.</p><p>“Perfect, let’s go and see what we can get there.” Reggie feels hopeful that they can actually do something, and her school seems like a good lead.</p><p>“Last one there’s a rotten egg,” Luke calls as he poofs out, quickly followed by Reggie and Alex.</p><p>The first thing Reggie notices about Los Feliz high school is just how intimidating the building is. He hasn’t seen a high school since they were 16 and dropping out to pursue their music, so he figures that is a fair response.</p><p>“Ok, first things first, let’s find Julie,” Luke takes charge, a natural leader.</p><p>“Aye, aye, captain,” Reggie gives a joking salute. Luke just rolls his eyes fondly and ushers them into the building. They stop once they get through the front doors, gaping at the large foyer and long connecting hallways.</p><p>“Geez, this place is huge, how are we gonna find anyone?” Reggie frets. Alex and Luke’s faces mirror his own worries.</p><p>“Well, she’s the only one that can hear us when we aren’t playing right? So, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just start yelling?” Luke says with a shrug.</p><p>“Sure,” Reggie immediately cups his hands around his mouth and starts calling for Julie. Luke and Alex join in and they walk the halls, going through a lot more lifers than they’d like, trying to find Julie.</p><p>When they finally find her, she doesn’t look pleased.</p><p>“What are you guys doing here?” She hisses, trying to look inconspicuous as she keeps walking.</p><p>“Well, we wanted to help you get back into your music program, so we came to see what we could do,” Luke says.</p><p>“Well, we’re all too late, it’s full and I can’t get back in until next semester.” She sighs.</p><p>“All you did was ask?” Luke steps in front of her, making her stop, Julie nods in confirmation. “you don’t get what you want by asking, you get it by doing. Sunset Curve never would have made it to the Orpheum if we hadn’t gotten into those clubs before. So, if you want to get back into that class, you have to show them what they’re missing.” Reggie may have heard many of Luke’s pep talks, but they still send shivers down his spine.</p><p>“I don’t even have anything to play,” She starts walking again, taking a turn down another corridor.</p><p>“Well, I thought of that.” He pulls a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket. “This is a Sunset Curve song that we never got to record. You should play it,” Julie takes the paper from him looking over it.</p><p>“Oh, is it Bright?” Reggie remembers seeing Luke and Alex working on that song in the studio, it took them at least six hours to finish it. “That song is sick, Julie, you gotta play that one.” He feels excitement bubbling inside of him, ready to burst put any second.</p><p>“Sure, I’ll show my teacher tomorrow. Now, leave before I get sent back to therapy, please.”</p><p>Alex gives a simple wave, poofing himself out.</p><p>“Julie, it’s gonna be great, you’ll see,” Luke says, and then he’s leaving. Reggie smiles at her and gives him two thumbs up--he likes to think it’s one of his signature moves--and then he poofs himself out, shivering at the weird tingling sensation that accompanies it.</p><p>When Reggie appears back in the studio, Luke and Alex are listening intently to Julie’s father as he walks around taking pictures of the studio.</p><p>“Hey, what’s happening?” Reggie asks. He immediately gets both Luke and Alex’s pointer fingers over his mouth, telling him not to talk. Bewildered, Reggie takes in his friend’s watery eyes, and then he hears Ray talking.</p><p>“So many memories, of Julie playing next to you, and” Ray’s eyes are misty as well, and he lets out a wet laugh. “and Carlos trying to sing with his missing two front teeth.” That gets Reggie, and now the three of them are standing behind the piano that Ray is sitting at, listening to him reminisce.</p><p>“He’s talking about moving, but” Luke covers his mouth for a second, “the poor guy, he doesn’t want to move.” The sound of the shutter on Ray’s camera goes off.</p><p>“We should probably leave him,” Alex suggests, backing away from the piano a bit as Ray continues his talking.</p><p>“Yeah, can we go see my parents, how they’re doing?” Reggie feels a faint lump in his throat and he definitely needs to get out of there. Luke nods his agreement, and they disappear.</p><p>+++</p><p>Luke had convinced both Reggie and Alex to come to look around Julie’s room. Reggie didn’t really want to snoop through her stuff, so he just enjoyed the simple pleasure of laying on her bed, imagining that he could actually feel how soft her blankets are.</p><p>“Oh my God, we need to talk about boundaries!” Julie exclaims when she enters her room. Reggie startles from where he is lying, ending up on his feet, standing near Luke.</p><p>“Hey, what’s in this box?” Luke motions to a small, painted box on the shelf in front of him.</p><p>“None of your business,” Julie crosses her arms.</p><p>“Girl stuff?” Luke smirks. That thought gets Reggie a bit excited.</p><p>“Like butterflies and glitter?” It may be a small secret that Reggie, who wears leather jackets and dresses like a punk, enjoys his fair share of glitter. Alex gives them both a disapproving look, apologizing for them Reggie notices Luke still giving the box a longing look.</p><p>“Hey, Jules, you ok?” Her dad sticks his head into his room.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m good. Just talking to Flynn.” She shows the phone in her hand.</p><p>“Okay, well, I’ll go now. Closed?” He asks, Julie just nod her head.</p><p>“Julie, you gotta tell me what’s in here.” Luke pleads, pulling his classic puppy dog eyes, ones that Reggie has been on the receiving end of too many times.</p><p>“It’s just a dream box,” Julie sighs. “I just keep things that make me happy in there now. Can you guys get out now?” Luke raises his hands in surrender, leading the group out of Julie’s room.</p><p>“Oh, Julie, when are you going to play for your teacher?” Reggie pulls back to ask.</p><p>“Tomorrow,” She smiles, probably happy to have a chance to play music again.</p><p>“Nice. Well, I’ll go now, see ya,” Reggie salutes, and walks out of her room, meeting up with Luke and Alex in the studio.</p><p>“So, Bright?” Alex smirks at Luke, who looks like he wants to die, again.</p><p>“Yeah, what about it.” He gets a bit defensive, and if Reggie knows anything about his best friend, it’s that he should be blushing right now, and he isn’t, which strikes him as a weird occurrence before he remembers they are dead.</p><p>“Nothing just thought it was cute,” Alex is still smirking, he looks like he’s on the edge of snickering.</p><p>“Well, I just figured that since we hadn’t recorded it, she’d like it.” Luke is pouting again, the pout he does when he is not pleased with what is being revealed about him. Alex just waves him off, but not without making his own face, one he usually wears when he learns something that he can use as ammo against his friends; Reggie has no idea what just happened, but he decides not to try and figure it out.</p><p>“Anyway, how about we quietly try and practice the song, since we have nothing better to do,” Reggie suggests. The other two just nod and pick up their instruments, taking care to keep their volume down.</p><p>+++</p><p>Reggie may have only known Julie for a day, but he would do anything for her. So, he stands with Luke and Alex in her school’s gym and cheers her on as she begins to play their song. And, as he remembers, she sounds amazing, the students notice it too, stopping to watch her.</p><p>“Guys, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Luke nudges them, a wide smile on his face.</p><p>“That Julie sounds good?” Reggie guesses, unsure what Luke is trying to hint at.</p><p>“No, you dork,” He laughs, “We should get up there and play with her. I mean, no one is going to see us right, so what’s the harm?” Luke reminds Reggie so much of a puppy as he looks between him and Alex, trying to get them to agree, and how could he say no to his big, sad eyes.</p><p>“Ok, sure,” Reggie agrees easily. Alex takes a few more seconds before he exasperatedly agrees. Luke does a quick fist pump before they call upon their instruments and join Julie.</p><p>To Reggie’s, and everyone else’s shock, the students get more enticed by the performance when they arrive. They have played many shows before, so Reggie ignores the wide-eyed stares and barely audible gasps, and continues to play his rhythms, keeping up with Alex’s drumming and Luke’s chords, singing half-remembered verses at the right time.</p><p>When he goes over to share Luke’s mic, the teens seem to scream a bit louder, and Reggie can feel all of it. The thumping from Alex’s drums, the screaming of the students, his own bass. He feels alive again, and it’s one of his favorite feelings, one he doesn’t want to forget. And then he’s moving again, back to his own mic before Julie takes over again.</p><p>They finish the song with a bow, and when the final chord reaches its end, the crowd gasps again, sitting in stunned silence for a moment before they clap wildly.</p><p>Julie turns to look at them, the biggest smile on her face, and Reggie thinks that she looks radiant, like the goddess Aphrodite coming out of the clamshell. He flashes her two thumbs up and his own big smile.</p><p>“Could they see us?” Alex taps his arm; his voice sounds a bit excited.</p><p>“Yeah, I think they could,” Luke laughs. “That was sick, guys!” He pats them both on the back, turning to face Julie and the dispersing crowd.</p><p>“Oh, look, do you think that’s her teacher coming over?” Alex points to two women that are making a beeline for Julie.</p><p>“Probably, we should go, let her have this moment alone.” Luke starts pushing them away from the group.</p><p>“Let’s go home,”</p><p>
  <strong>“But I just wanna see you smile again.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Teen Age Riot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Double update day, 4,000 words. I was hoping to make this one a bit longer, honestly, but I wasn't sure what to add. Did I write most of this to procrastinate my homework, yes, do I care, a lot. Anyway, enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie is used to Alex’s nervous pacing, it has become such a normal occurrence that Luke has taken to calling it his “runway walk” whenever he’s doing it, but what Reggie isn’t used to is Luke being nervous. As Alex is pacing in front of the couch, Luke is bouncing his leg, a change from his usual laid-back and cool façade. Reggie just sits tensely on the couch, waiting for one of them to speak up about what’s happening.</p><p>“Ok, dude, you’re freaking Reggie out, what’s up?” Alex stops his pacing to look at Luke, giving Reggie and eerie feeling with how he can pinpoint what is making him uncomfortable.</p><p>“Well, you’re pacing, and I don’t know why, for starters, and I’m trying to figure out how to get Julie to join the band,” Luke answers, Reggie realizes it wasn’t nervous bouncing, after all, just Luke thinking. “You’re also freaking him, so, what’s your deal?”</p><p>“You guys know I hate change, and that’s literally all that has happened recently. We died, change, we come back as ghosts, change, someone can see us, change, we can play our instruments, change, when we play with some girl everyone can see us, major change.” Alex’s talking gets a bit frantic as he continues talking. “Basically, what I’m saying is, I’m wound up because nothing is what I know, and I need to clear my head. I’m going out, I’ll be back in a while.” He heads for the door, having another short meltdown when he can’t grab onto the handle, before poofing out.</p><p>“So, you want to ask Julie to join the band?” Reggie asks Luke.</p><p>“Yeah, I mean, people can see us when we play with her, why wouldn’t we want her to join?” Reggie considers for a moment.</p><p>“Yeah, I think you’re right, wouldn’t hurt to get a new lead singer,” He knows what Luke is going to think of that, and he can’t help teasing him.</p><p>“But I’m the lead singer,” Luke responds as Reggie had guessed, even wearing an offended expression.</p><p>“Sure, but Julie has the voice of an angel, and she can make us visible!” Reggie retorts.</p><p>“Ok, you make a point, I’ll do back up vocals. Now, how can we convince her to join?” Luke wonders aloud, doing an exaggerated stroking motion over his chin.</p><p>“Remember her dream box thing?” Reggie feels excited like he’s actually on to something. Luke nods. “Ok, well, do you think she ever writes poems or something, like her mom?”</p><p>“Reginald, you genius!” Luke exclaims, grabbing Reggie’s face in his hands, rendering him speechless. “You brilliant idiot, of course! If we can put music to her words, she’ll see that we’re perfect together.” Luke is bouncing around the room now, and Reggie is sure that if he had blood his face would be a bright crimson.</p><p>“Let’s go to her room and see if we can find anything,” Luke hauls him up from the couch and drags him up to Julie’s room, passing Ray on the way, who looks concerned as he shuffles through some papers.</p><p>“Ok, Reg, you look over her desk, I’m going for the box,” Luke says. Reggie wastes no time in going to Julie’s desk to look around for anything that could be a potential song. He mostly finds math homework, a few science assignments, and a roughly sketched out paper with some choreography on it.</p><p>“I’ve got nothing, man, what about you?” Reggie turns to Luke, who is standing on a stool, looking over a paper intently. “Luke, you find something?” He asks again.</p><p>“Huh? Oh, yeah, look at this,” He happily hands the paper over to Reggie.</p><p>“My life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you,” Reggie mumbles. The words that Julie has written on the paper seem emotional and he feels a little bad about snooping through her stuff. “This is good, wanna go work on it?” Luke grins, and once again pulls Reggie from the room, rushing back to the studio. Reggie feels manic as they run, clutching tightly to Luke’s hand and focusing on holding the paper in his other. He hasn’t felt this excited since the Orpheum, and now that feels like it happened a long time ago.</p><p>When they get back to the studio, they pick up their respective instruments and run through a rough version of the song. Luke grabs his notebook and makes some changes to the lyrics and adding the notes he thinks work. Reggie is mesmerized by the intensity Luke has when he’s writing. His tongue pokes out a bit at the side of his mouth and his eyebrows furrow the smallest bit. He looks serene, and it’s one of the calmest states that he sees Luke in.</p><p>“Ok, let’s try this,” Luke puts aside his notebook and goes for his guitar starting with the few chords he has and mumbling the lyrics along with them. “Yeah, this sounds good, Reggie, you got the notes?” The direct addressing shakes Reggie from his trance, and once again, he is thankful that you can’t blush when you’re dead.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, wanna try something?” He asks, looking over what Luke had written down.</p><p>“Yeah, just follow my lead, do what feels right, and we’ll see what happens.” Luke smiles at him and he doesn’t feel too bad anymore, and then he’s playing the first chords and Reggie is trying to follow.</p><p>They go over the first full verse Luke wrote out, letting Reggie feel it out to find a rhythm that felt good. Once Reggie settles on something they fiddle with some more riffs, mainly Luke trying to find something for a bridge.</p><p>“Woah, Reg, what do you think of this,” Luke asks giddily, beginning to pluck out a simple rhythm.</p><p>“Yeah, and I can,” Reggie plays his own accompanying bass line. He feels connected to Luke as they sit there, just the two of them creating music together, standing about a foot apart. He doesn’t know how to describe what he’s feeling, but it feels like Luke has a magnetic attraction that is pulling him in and he doesn’t want it to stop, except that Julie walks in right then and she doesn’t seem happy that they’re playing.</p><p>“I told you guys not to play alone,” She’s crossing her arms across her chest, a nice resemblance to Reggie’s mom when he was five.</p><p>“We’re never alone,” Reggie says, a little confused at what she means.</p><p>“Yeah, because we always have each other,” Luke adds, putting his arm around Reggie’s neck and placing his head on his shoulder. Reggie can feel his stomach do a flip, but he doesn’t know what that means, and he can almost imagine that his heart would have skipped a beat, but that is just what Luke does to him.</p><p>Julie shakes her head exasperatedly, “Not the point, what are you guys doing?”</p><p>“Well, we had a little band meeting earlier, Alex did bail before that, but we think he’d be ok with us asking,” Luke motions to Reggie, and he takes that as he cue to do a small drum roll on his thighs. “We want to ask you to join Sunset Curve!” Luke’s hands go up in a small jazz hands gesture, but Julie is quiet.</p><p>“Oh,” She says after a tense moment.</p><p>That doesn’t sit well with Reggie, or Luke either, because he says, “’Oh’? That’s what you say when you get socks as a Christmas gift, not when you get invited to join the greatest rock band of all time.”</p><p>“I know,” Julie sighs, she seems like she’s having a hard time. “I just can’t focus on anything other than Flynn right now. She knows I lied to her about you guys, and I have to fix it.”</p><p>“Oh, yeah, you’re in a rough spot,” Luke sympathizes. “So, you wanna join the band?” He pulls an innocent smile, at which Julie groans.</p><p>“Read the room, dude.” And then she’s walking away, and Reggie feels like he’s falling, like his only hope of getting to do anything with his afterlife is slipping away from him.</p><p>Luke isn’t going to let that happen. “But we need you, and you need us because you need music.” He starts. “Reggie and I found this poem you wrote, and we added this really cool melody to it,” He pulls the folded-up paper from his pocket, and Reggie notices that Julie’s eyes harden.</p><p>“Where did you get that?” Julie looks angry, and Reggie involuntarily flinches, transported back to when his parents fought. Neither of them seems to notice it, too busy acting like siblings that are fighting over a toy.</p><p>Reggie comes back in time to see Julie walking out of the studio, telling them to stay out of her room. Luke turns around from the closed doors and finally notices Reggie’s slightly spaced-out expression.</p><p>“Woah, Reg, you ok?” He comes over to him, holding his hands out like he wants to touch him but he doesn’t know if he can.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m fine, just got a bit spooked, I guess, I’m ok,” Reggie tries to brush him off, ready to hide from his friend again, just like in the 90s.</p><p>“Obviously not, we don’t have to talk about it, but I just want to be here for you.” Luke’s voice is soft, and his eyes look like they’re trying to see inside of him.</p><p>“Yeah, can we just sit for a bit?” Reggie asks, he’s hugging himself now and he feels like a child, but it’s what he needs. Luke nods and they move to the couch, Reggie cuddles into Luke’s side, who let him and plays with his head. Neither of them talks, they just sit there, Luke comforting Reggie and Reggie wishing he knew what was happening inside of him.</p><p>+++</p><p>When Alex comes back, Luke and Reggie are still on the couch, but now they’re laying down. Reggie is almost asleep, being startled from it when Alex speaks, “Hey, guys, I met a new ghost friend,”</p><p>“Really? That’s cool,” Reggie says, pushing himself off of Luke to make space on the couch.</p><p>“Yeah, he answered some questions, it was excellent,” Alex seems almost wistful as he says this, and Reggie is even more clueless about what that means.</p><p>“Did he give any advice on how to get Julie to join the band?” Luke grumbles while Alex plops himself down on the couch, moving his hair out of his eyes.</p><p>“Well, no, did you guys ask her?” Reggie feels slightly offended that Alex thinks they wouldn’t have asked her.</p><p>“Yeah, we even found one of her poems and added a sick bass and guitar line to it,” Luke is pouting, again.</p><p>Alex rolls his eyes, “Where did you get her poem from?” He sounds exasperated, akin to a teacher who’s trying to come across as nice when he’s trying to get information out of a child.</p><p>“We got it from her dream box,” Luke mumbles, Alex shakes his head, saying something under his breath that sounds a lot like tactless.</p><p>“Ok, well, maybe you guys shouldn’t go through her stuff.” Alex looks at both of them, they nod their heads in understanding, and Luke looks a bit more sheepish. “Anyway, this ghost I met was saying that if we find out what our unfinished business is, we can do it and move on,”</p><p>“Why would we want to do that? This is basically a second chance; we have to take it.” Luke is doing his pep talk voice again, and Reggie does find it endearing, no matter how much he’s heard it in the last two days.</p><p>“I figured that we didn’t really have much left here, we’re dead and everyone we knew has probably forgotten us. I mean, do we even know what Bobby is doing? Reggie, we can’t even find our parents,” Alex points out. That doesn’t make Reggie feel better, he can sense the paralyzing sensation from earlier coming back, and he freezes. Luke immediately puts an arm around his shoulders and tries to ground him.</p><p>“Ok, I get where you’re coming from, Alex, I really do, but don’t you want to make people feel things, to connect with them through something everyone understands?” Luke retorts. He is now soothingly rubbing his hand up and down Reggie’s bicep, and he feels himself relaxing at the touch.</p><p>Alex sighs, this time one of defeat and not from being irritated by his friends, “Ok, you have a point. Can I see what you guys did?” Luke nods, a smile of triumph on his face as he fetches his notebook for Alex to look over. Alex takes it quietly and reads what they wrote.</p><p>“Where’s the drums?” He’s offended.</p><p>“Well, we figured this could be an acoustic, you know, little to no drums,” Luke says with the confidence of a man who has never faced a pissed off, Alex, though he does shrink back the smallest amount when he sees Alex’s glare.</p><p>“Ok, well, we’re gonna have to fix this,” The tone of his voice leaves no room for argument, so they go over to their instruments and work out Alex’s drums.</p><p>They’re almost finished when Julie comes in and says they have to practice the song to play for Flynn in a half hour.</p><p>In a rush, they figure out an intro that Julie can play before they come in. And then they run through it. It takes them three times before they can really play it in any kind of synchrony, but it sounds good. Everyone is hitting their harmonies and there are very few missed notes and cues, and it’s a good thing they have it down because just as they’re about to start on their fifth time, Flynn is knocking on the door.</p><p>Julie lets her in, and they have a short conversation, Flynn saying that she doesn’t believe that ghosts are real and Julie just smiling at her knowingly. When she presses Flynn into a chair, she gives the boys a once over, and she’s starting.</p><p>It doesn’t take long for the rest of them to join in, and Flynn definitely notices. She gasps at the slight shift in air pressure when they appear, becoming entranced by their presence.</p><p>Reggie lets himself get lost in their playing; singing with Luke, feeling his breath on his face, watching Julie’s expression, happy and smug as she watches her best friend’s reactions, feeling Alex’s drum beat through his bones.</p><p>Julie is now dragging Flynn through the studio as they play, starting with Luke, who jumps at her jokingly, causing her to flinch; then Alex, who smiles at her, and keeps up his playing, and then finally to Reggie, who she decides to try and touch, waving her hand around at the weird and cold feeling of putting her hand through a ghost.</p><p>Reggie laughs, “Weird, right?”</p><p>They jump into the final repetition of the verse, and Flynn is dancing around with them, singing along. Reggie watches the girls interact and he sees a mirror image of him and Luke in them, they radiate the same love that he and Luke share, and he can see it in their eyes, the obvious affection for the other as if Julie’s song wasn’t obvious enough.</p><p>“Does this mean you’re joining the band?” Luke, ever the puppy, asks excitedly from his spot on the couch.</p><p>“I think you mean you’re joining her band,” Flynn cuts in.</p><p>“I’m gonna go with what she said,” Julie says. Luke shrugs, and then they vanish from Flynn’s sight, making her jump again.</p><p>“So, they’re still here, right?” She looks around apprehensively.</p><p>“Yeah, they are,” Julie laughs. “Do you want to stay for dinner?”</p><p>“Sure, but you have to tell me everything about your ghost boys,” Flynn bargains. Julie agrees, and they leave the studio, calling goodbyes as they go.</p><p>“Sick performance, guys,” Luke pulls them into a group hug.</p><p>“Hell yeah, I’m pumped that we got her to join, it’s gonna be so rad to play for people again,” Reggie says. The others laugh, agreeing with him.</p><p>That night they pile themselves into the loft, passing out in a sort of pile, reminiscent of the time they were 15 and ready to make him feel better. He barely noticed the hole in his chest from that missing piece of family.</p><p>
  <strong>“You’re it.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Kiss From a Rose</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oops, third post today, haha. I may be pushing my own feelings onto Reggie, and I may have almost cried writing this. Anyway, this takes place very soon after the end of the last chapter. And, as always here is a link to the playlist because this is the end of part two! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zbnKaN0PhcmmvXRMmyAPy?si=hDghelIRQFSrGq9V-HwTqg I hope this works...  I fixed the mistake! Thank you for catching that one Heather___Grace (Did I get the right amount of underscores?)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Being a ghost has its ups and downs. For one, you don’t have to eat, but Reggie always enjoyed the flavor and routine that came from cooking. You also don’t have to use the bathroom, which is always a plus. You can sleep, you don’t need to, but you’re never out for very long.</p><p>And now there’s a dilemma. It is not a big problem; it’s just annoying to never sleep for more than an hour. Reggie wants to die again to try and get out of the experience of not needing sleep. When he was alive, he would always savor being able to fall asleep with his best friends around him, now they just have to lay there, lost in their own thoughts as the time passes. And that’s not the worst thing in the world, except that Reggie has been feeling weir things about Luke recently. Whenever he touches him, a tingle runs through his body, his laugh causes a tumbling sensation in his stomach. His eyes make his knees weak, and when he gets too close Reggie doesn’t know what to do, and they’ve been friends for years.</p><p>Reggie has never felt these things before, in relation to anyone and he doesn’t know what to make of it. He assumes that the swooping in his stomach is what people refer to as butterflies, but he doesn’t know why Luke is causing it.</p><p>He thinks about his first relationship with Daisy. She was pretty and nice. He vividly remembers that she never made him feel anything more towards her than friendship, despite what he may have told his friends. And his second girlfriend was even less.</p><p>They were together for a month, longer than Daisy and he still can’t remember feeling anything for her. He feels scared, he doesn’t know what his feelings mean, he doesn’t know if he’s gay, like Alex. But he can’t be gay, he thinks that girls are pretty, no one can like both boys and girls, right?</p><p>Reggie stands up, Luke and Alex give him questioning looks, and he just tells them that he’s going for a walk, be back in a bit. And then he’s standing on the beach. A place that he considers a special spot. His house was right there, he was always able to go out and smell the salty air. It gave him a place to think, be by himself. Even though he’s dead now, the feeling of comfort and home hasn’t faded, and the beach at night is a pleasant sight. It’s empty of people, though there might be two people far off in the distance, and the only sound is the crash of waves on the shore.</p><p>He can’t exactly feel anything anymore, but he takes his shoes off and walks along the surf, letting the cold Pacific Ocean water cover his feet. He doesn’t get wet, of course, so he doesn’t worry about his pants getting ruined; he just walks and contemplates his emotions or lack thereof.</p><p>Thinking about what his friends would say about their girlfriends, how they were perfect, how they made them feel like they were the only person that mattered, Reggie can’t remember ever feeling like that with anyone other than Luke, Alex, or Bobby, his best friends. Maybe he was broken, he couldn’t feel right, and there wouldn’t be anyone that could love him for that, in any way. Reggie feels tears creeping into his eyes, his nose already feels wet. He stops walking and sits in the surf, crying as the water laps over him.</p><p>He sits there for God knows how long, just crying until he is left with a headache. He realizes that he didn’t actually release any tears or snot, another perk of being dead, he thinks bitterly as he reflexively wipes his nose with the back of his flannel.</p><p>Reggie pushes himself up from the sand, heading back to Julie’s house with only the realization that he is not normal.</p><p>+++</p><p>Instead of going straight back to the studio, he goes into the main house. It’s dark inside, and he assumes that no one is awake, so he wanders through the house.</p><p>Going upstairs, he hears some noise coming from inside Julie’s room, so he decides to knock.</p><p>“Come in,” She calls. Reggie enters the room without opening the door, and she seems to visibly relax a bit. She’s sitting on her bed, her computer closed on her lap.</p><p>“Hey, Reggie, what’s up?” Julie asks. Reggie also relaxes, realizing she isn’t mad at him for coming to her room.</p><p>“I don’t actually know why I came up here,” He stammers, “I’ll just go,” He turns to leave, but Julie stops him, calling out to him.</p><p>“Wait, something is obviously wrong, talk to me.” She scoots over to make room for him, offering to let him sit under her blanket as well. Reggie feels warm inside as he climbs under, a sense of family surrounding this girl he’s only known for a few days.</p><p>“Well, um, will you promise not to judge me if I tell you this?” He feels vulnerable as he sits in Julie’s bed, about to bare his soul for her.</p><p>“Of course, you can tell me whatever you want, Reggie, I won’t judge you.” He looks into her eyes and they look so sincere he could never think of her being harsh or judging him.</p><p>“Ok, well, I dated a few people in the 90s,” He takes a deep breath, steeling himself before he continues. “I didn’t actually feel anything towards them, I just dated them because my friends were dating people and I wanted to fit in. I only dated two people, because I never actually felt anything that the guys said they felt about people they liked, I don’t think I even know what a crush actually feels like.” He momentarily looks up to Julie, expecting to see disgust or confusion on her face, but he only sees support, so he continues, “I never knew what these butterflies in my stomach felt like, but now I think that I am feeling them, or something like them, and I don’t know what it means, especially because it’s a guy and I’m not gay. I’m sorry, you probably think I’m weird, I’ll just go.” He starts to move himself out from under the blankets when he sees Julie reach for him out of the corner of his eye, her hand is out, stopped before she can fully touch him, or go through him.</p><p>“Reggie, you aren’t weird, at all, ok? A lot of people feel like that too, they usually identify as demiromantic, which is basically not feeling any romantic attraction towards someone until you really know them. And you can also like multiple genders, it’s not uncommon. But labels don’t matter, what really matters is how you feel, and, Reggie, you are valid.” She goes to grab his face in both hands, remembering that she can’t when her hands go through him. Reggie looks up at her and keeps her eye contact. “I know it’s scary to realize that you don’t fit the status quo, I’m bisexual, and if you need anything, a guiding hand or just someone to vent to, I am here,” Reggie feels like he’s going to cry again, even though he knows that tears won’t come out.</p><p>“Thank you, Julie, I really don’t know what to say. It just feels,” he pauses, feeling like he should be crying, “amazing to know that other people feel like me. I was so scared that I was going to be an outcast or something, and I don’t know, thank you.” </p><p>Julie is actually crying, “Of course, Reggie, we’re friends now, and I make sure my friends are ok. Do you want to sleep here for a bit?” She offers. Reggie just nods and they lay down, facing each other in Julie’s small bed.</p><p>As Reggie drifts off to sleep once again, he feels that missing piece of family in his heart being refilled, this time by a spunky girl that brought them back to life. And he falls asleep knowing that he has definitely fallen for his best friend, and there is nothing wrong with that.</p><p>
  <strong>“The more I get of you the stranger it feels.”</strong>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. I Want You to Want Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oof, it has been a rough couple of weeks, but I made it, somewhat. This chapter is a conglomeration of the past couple of weeks of sporadic writing, so hopefully, it is ok and makes sense.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Though Reggie was coming around to his feelings and his crush on his best friend, he wasn’t ready to go back to the studio. So, when Julie makes him leave her room in the morning, he goes back to the beach. If he remembers correctly, it is about 7 in the morning, and the beach is still empty, there are a few more people than there were earlier, but not enough to make it crowded.</p><p>Instead of strolling along the shore, Reggie plants himself on a piece of driftwood, looking out towards the vast expanse of ocean. He hears bits of conversations as people pass him, he can hear cars driving past behind him, he hears the panting of a jogger who stops to take a short break before taking off again. Reggie sits and listens, absorbing the 21<sup>st</sup> century Saturday morning hustle and bustle.</p><p>He’s not sure how long he sits there for, but when he is being suddenly shocked from his people watching by a call of his name, he figures it doesn't really matter. He turns to see who is calling out to him, and he notices Alex standing above him.</p><p>“Hey, man, what’s up?” Reggie moves over to offer Alex room on the wood, which he takes.</p><p>“Luke and I were worried about you, Reggie. When you didn’t come back to the studio last night we didn’t know if something had happened to you, or what,” Alex trails off, running a hand through his hair, a common sign of his anxiety. “I’m glad that Julie came into the studio and said she had seen you,”</p><p>“Aw, you were worried about me,” Reggie teases, bumping Alex’s shoulder with his own. Alex laughs and wraps his arm around Reggie’s shoulders.</p><p>“Always am, dude. But are you ok? Julie didn’t say anything about what happened last night, but she seemed a bit off when she talked about you.”</p><p>“I’m doing good, Lex, I just needed to think.” Reggie does his best to reassure him, Alex gives his shoulders a squeeze but doesn’t say anything, he just sits with Reggie and listens to the sounds around him.</p><p>+++</p><p>When they get back to the studio, Reggie sees Julie and Luke huddled over a notebook at the piano. He feels a pang of jealousy in his chest, he tries to quieten it, reminding himself that he had no hold over Luke or who he likes.</p><p>“Oh, hey guys,” Julie says, waving happily. “Luke and I were working on my mom’s old songs. I think this one is almost done.”</p><p>“Sick, do you have a lot that she never finished?” Alex asks.</p><p>“Actually, a lot of these are songs we were writing together, there’s at least four, a few we stopped working on altogether.” She gets a sort of wistful look in her eyes as she talks.</p><p>“That’s really cool,” Alex says sincerely. “Um, well, Reggie and I will just sit over here and be out of your way.”</p><p>“Oh, I could get you guys my laptop, we have a Netflix account, you could watch something,” Julie offers.</p><p>“What’s Netflix?” Reggie asks, the word feeling odd coming from him.</p><p>“Oh, it’s a streaming service,” she explains. “It’s a digital platform that lets you watch a bunch of movies and TV shows really easily?” She says, sounding more like a question to see if they understand.</p><p>“Wait, so you guys don’t have VHS’ anymore, it’s just stored on a computer?” Alex makes a face that Reggie knows means he is trying to figure something out.</p><p>“Yeah, basically, it’s really simple, I’ll go get it,” Julie quickly runs out of the studio. Reggie looks between Luke and Alex, who both look as confused as he is.</p><p>“Digital, that’s so weird,” Alex says, studying the ground now.</p><p>“I honestly don’t understand what that means, but it sounds interesting,” Reggie adds.</p><p>“But it has to be so expensive,” Alex mumbles. “It can’t be that easy to get a computer, they cost so much, this can’t be widely used,” He seems like he’s trying to console himself, and Reggie doesn’t really understand why, it’s a computer, sure, his family never actually had one, but Julie’s family seems to have money, of course, they would have one.</p><p>“Dude, calm down, it’s a computer,” Luke sounds a bit more callous than he usually does when he talks to Alex.</p><p>“But--,“ Luke puts a finger to his mouth, shushing Alex.</p><p>“It’s ok,” It seems to work because Alex is now taking a few deep breaths and he seems calmer.</p><p>“Ok, yeah, it’s fine, a sign of the times, right?” Maybe Reggie was wrong, he’s definitely still a little wound up.</p><p>“Ok, I got it,” Julie pants as she comes back into the studio. “Come here,” She waves them over to the couch, where they all crowd around her to see her screen. “Ok, this is Netflix, and they have a lot of options for movies and shows to pick from.” Julie spends the next ten minutes showing them how to operate her computer. When she hands it to Alex, for him to scroll through, it falls onto the couch. Julie giggles, and offers to set them up with a movie. She pulls up Back to the Future and leaves it on the coffee table, while she and Luke go back to the piano to work on their songs.</p><p>Reggie tries to focus on the movie, the nostalgia being almost enough to block out the jealousy he feels as he hears Luke and Julie singing together and giggling over the piano. His attempts feel futile, he watches Alex, sitting with his knees pulled under his chin and staring intently at the computer screen, but Reggie can still hear them giggling behind him.</p><p>He isn’t able to relax until he hears Alex mumbling along with the lines. Reggie pours all his focus into tuning out Julie and Luke and hearing Alex as he happily quotes the movie from heart, seeming to be the calmest he has been since they got pulled into 2020, and it is enough to distract him from the lingering hurt he feels at the thought of his other best friend.</p><p>Alex continues to mumble along to the movie, and Reggie eventually joins in. Alex perks up, and they slowly start talking a bit louder, getting lost in their own bubble, giggling as they recall all the lines. It’s a cathartic experience after all that has happened in the last 3 days, and Reggie lets himself get lost in the moment, paying no attention to anything else.</p><p>They make it through the whole movie, quoting it as they watch. Reggie’s face feels sore from all the laughing, and he’s holding his stomach, Alex laughing close by as well.</p><p>“That was great,” Alex’s eyes are closed as he continues to laugh.</p><p>“The most fun I’ve ever had,” Reggie giggles along, making Ale laugh just a bit harder.</p><p>“Could you guys quiet down please,” Luke says, he sounds annoyed, which causes Reggie to immediately go quiet. He notices the confused look Julie gives Luke.</p><p>“Sorry, Luke, we’ll leave you two in peace, come one, Reg,” Alex takes his hand and pulls him from the couch, taking him out of the studio. Reggie barely hears the angry huff that Luke lets out as they leave.</p><p>Alex pulls him into the house, where Carlos is watching a cartoon on the TV and Ray is moving about in the kitchen, seemingly making lunch. Alex silently points to the living room in question, and Reggie nods, still reeling from Luke’s hostility.</p><p>“I’m sure Luke isn’t actually mad at you, he’s probably just drained from this week,” Alex reassures him.</p><p>“Yeah, I get it, it just shook me a bit,” Reggie says, running his hand along his bicep in a comforting manner. Alex doesn’t say anything else; he just wraps his arm around Reggie’s shoulders and sits back to watch the cartoon that’s playing.</p><p>After twenty minutes, Ray calls Julie in for lunch. Carlos leaves the living room, turning the TV off on the way, leaving Alex and Reggie on the couch. It doesn’t take long for Luke to appear after the family has set up at the table.</p><p>“Reggie, I’m really sorry for snapping at you earlier,” He says.</p><p>“It’s ok, Luke,” Reggie tries to brush him off, doesn’t want Luke worrying about him that much.</p><p>“Not really, it was a shitty thing for me to take out my distress on you, and I’m sorry,” Luke says. He looks sad, but he manages to hold eye contact with Reggie as he apologizes.</p><p>“Luke, I get it, we’re all strung out, you didn’t mean to yell at us. I forgive you,” Reggie stands to pull him into a hug, savoring the feeling of Luke’s body, though ghostly, against his own.</p><p>“Ok, well, now that we sorted that, you guys have to come hear this song Julie and I just finished, it is killer!” Luke exclaims, immediately back to his hyper self and running towards the studio. He stops at the door to make sure that Reggie and Alex are following.</p><p>Reggie smiles to himself, watching Alex chase after Luke. He can tell that he’s losing his grip, hanging onto the edge of the pit that is being in love with Luke, he’s ready to let himself fall, even if the impact hurts, because what’s the point of living if you don’t experience love at least once. He giggles a little bit, lost in the feeling as he races after his friends, ready to be fully invested in whatever happens next.</p><p>
  <strong>“I want you to want me. I need you to need me.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Hurricane</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here it is! If I had stuck with my original plan for what I wanted to do with this chapter, this would have ended up being way longer than it is now, but it is the longest chapter yet at a solid 3000 word count. Just in case you didn't notice, I did retitle this fic to Waiting on a Ghost. Please keep leaving comments and kudos, they mean so much and it's really nice to get feedback on what is happening. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take too long to be written, but if it is a while, don't worry, I'm still here.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The weekend was relatively uneventful unless you counted all the times Reggie felt himself yearning for Luke, and all the time he and Alex spent finding out about new movies on Julie’s Netflix. In a normal situation, Reggie probably would have found it to be a fun weekend, but Luke was constantly on edge while he and Julie were writing, and Reggie didn’t have to look that hard to see it. He saw it in the way Luke’s shoulders were a bit more hunched than normal, he saw it in the way he couldn’t keep a smile on his face when he thought no one could see it anymore. Reggie wanted to reach out and say something to calm him down, but whenever he saw Luke look over at him, it would be with a bit of a glare, and he would quickly divert his gaze when his eyes met Reggie’s. It didn’t feel good, but he tried to just power through it, waiting for some kind of hint about what is causing Luke’s mood shift.</p><p>Julie hadn’t come into the studio before she left for school, and Alex only spent a few hours with them before he left, saying that he was going to meet up with his ghost friend, Willie. When Alex Left, Luke also decided to leave, though he didn’t say where or what he was going to do, just that he would be back later. Which left Reggie alone in the studio, stuck with his thoughts.</p><p>He pondered over where Luke could have gone, and knowing him, he likely went back to where his old house was, to see if his parents were still there, and how they were getting on. It didn’t sound like a good thing for Luke to put himself through, but Reggie understands what he’s thinking; Luke misses his parents, he has since he ran away, and he hasn’t gotten over that guilt, especially since he died before he could see them again. Reggie quickly moves on from that though, passingly thinking about trying to find his own family.</p><p>Instead of dwelling on thoughts of his own family, Reggie decides to wander into Julie’s house to try and get to know her family. Carlos is undoubtedly at school, but it seems that Ray doesn’t really have a “go-to-work” type of job, judging by how he’s sitting at his computer. Reggie goes to peep over his shoulder, looking at the pictures that he took.</p><p>“Those are pretty good, what are they for?” He asks even though he knows Ray won’t answer. The pictures are of a family, posed around a backyard, looking happy. There are four of them, two parents and two little girls, as well as a dog that is kept in the center through all the pictures. Reggie feels an idle pang of sadness at the happiness radiating from the family, but he elects to ignore it and watch Ray do minimal editing to the photos.  </p><p>“Ok, I can send these off now,” Ray mumbles to himself after a few more minutes of tweaking the pictures. Reggie watches intently over his shoulder at what he is doing, entranced by the smooth way that Ray manipulates the computer. It takes him a few minutes, he has to add the files to the email, but soon he’s finished and giving himself a pat on the back. Reggie continues to silently observe him as he moves seamlessly about the house. Checking his schedule and picking up scattered objects from the floor, Ray goes about his day, oblivious to Reggie’s presence, which is probably why he finds it in himself to try and hold one ended conversation.</p><p>“So, are you good to go to for advice? I mean, you’re a dad, and a single one, so you must be good at it,” Reggie starts, ready to run his mouth off.</p><p>He takes a deep breath before he begins, “Ok, so, Luke is my best friend, right, and recently I figured out I like him as more than that, which is already really weird to me, because I’ve never felt like that before, and these last few days he’s been glaring at me, and I don’t know what that means. Do you think he knows, and he hates me now? No, he’d tell me, I’m sure, he never keeps anything from me.” Reggie pauses to think, trying not to spiral into that territory.</p><p>Ray has stopped in the kitchen and is making himself something to eat, so Reggie leans against the island. The company is nice, even if one side doesn’t know the other is there.</p><p>“Anyway, I just don’t know what to do, all I know is that no matter how I feel, I don’t want to lose Luke. He’s been by my side for as long as I can remember, and we’ve had fights before, nothing major, and this feels like it could be the worst thing that has happened to us. I need to know what happened, and if I can fix it,” Reggie stops talking, realizing what had been so obvious from the beginning. “Thanks, Ray. You really are amazing!” He exclaims, rushing for the door and then remembering his ghost powers halfway there, and poofing himself to where he thinks Luke may be.</p><p>+++</p><p>Luke’s parent's house looks exactly the same from the outside as it did in the 90s, save for the newer car in the drive and the addition of some plants. Reggie feels like that should probably be less surprising than he finds it, but the idea that Luke’s parents likely still live there and seem to still be mourning their son hits a few nerves.</p><p>He steels himself for the nostalgia that is bound to hit him when he gets to the house and slowly walks up the path. He doesn’t pretend to knock on the door, he just walks into the house. He chokes when he sees Mitch and Emily Patterson sitting in the living room, going about their day. They aged, but they’re still here, and Reggie feels his chest tighten at the thought of them living alone for the last 20 years. He’s pulled from his reverie when he notices the back of Luke’s head sticking up over the back of the couch. Reggie can guess that he’s sitting with his knees pulled under his chin as he would always sit when he was enjoying an afternoon with his parents.</p><p>“Luke,” He says, almost too quietly, but it gets his attention because his head quickly whips around to face Reggie.</p><p>“Reg, what are you doing here?” Luke’s sadness shows though he tries to hide it.</p><p>“I was looking for you, but that doesn’t matter that much anymore, are you ok?” Reggie takes a few steps closer to Luke, who wipes his eyes seemingly subconsciously since there are no tears falling from his eyes.</p><p>“Yeah, I just miss them, and I wish I could have said something before,” He stops, but Reggie knows how he was going to finish that sentence.</p><p>“I know, Luke. I miss my parents too. Maybe there’s something you could do, maybe to let them know you’re here,” Luke shakes his head, trying to bury it in his legs.</p><p>“No, I’m just going to watch them,” the way he says it leaves no room for argument, so Reggie just lets him sit and watch them, putting his arm around his shoulders as Alex repeatedly does for him, it usually works.</p><p>As they sit in the living room that Reggie used to consider a second home, he feels his worries about Luke melt away, and he feels like he can pretend that the Patterson’s can see him, they know he’s sitting with them and they are acting like they would when Reggie would stay for dinner, cracking jokes and carrying endless smiles. It feels calming, and then he realizes that they have been gone for hours, and he’s rousing Luke from his comfortable position, pulling him back to the studio easily.</p><p>+++</p><p>When they get back, Alex is still out, but Julie is immediately walking into the room like she knew they had just gotten there.</p><p>“Guys, guess what Flynn did for us?” She has a big smile on her face, and it seems like she may burst from happiness soon.</p><p>“I don’t know, she found out about a very cool ghost power?” Reggie guesses, shrugging his shoulders.</p><p>“No,” Julie says simply, looking to Luke for his guess. She’s tapping her foot erratically, seemingly trying to get rid of excess energy.</p><p>“Uh, she…I don’t know,” Luke sighs, throwing his hands up in defeat. “what did she do?”</p><p>“She got us a gig!” Julie exclaims, holding out a poster. Luke reaches out to take it and reads the information, passing it off to Reggie when he finishes.</p><p>“A school dance? I mean, it’s not ideal, but it will work,” Luke concedes. Julie doesn’t say anything, just stands there with the same face-splitting grin plastered on.</p><p>“Yeah,” Reggie agrees, “a gig is a gig, and this will definitely get our name out there, a least.”</p><p>“Exactly, so, basics, how long are we gonna be on stage?” Luke gets straight to business, he usually wants to get everything straightened out right away to keep Alex’s stress levels as low as possible.</p><p>“I think we’ll have maybe half an hour,” Julie says.</p><p>“Ok, so that means probably six songs, seven tops,” Luke starts mumbling to himself. He’s always been the unofficial manager of the band if only to try and curb Alex’s anxiety before it got too bad. “Julie is the only one that doesn’t know all of our songs, so we can play Bright and Flying Solo,” He rushes to his notebook, lost in his world of organization. He flips through it at an almost manic pace, in search of the perfect songs. He barely mumbles another word as he sets up the list, rushing around the studio to find a pen and paper to write it down on. Reggie gets lost in the flurry of Luke, watching and admiring the concentration with which he goes about his task. Reggie jumps when Luke loudly announces he’s finished and pivots quickly to face him and Julie, the paper he was writing on fluttering in the wind.</p><p>“Hand it over,” Reggie takes it, and he holds it so Julie can see it too. “This looks pretty good,” He concedes, handing it to Julie for a second opinion.</p><p>Julie makes a hum of consideration, “Well, I think it’s ok, but we should see what Alex thinks, come get me when he’s back and we can make some solid plans then,”</p><p>“You go—” Luke is cut off by the sudden appearance of Alex in the middle of their loose circle. “Speak of the devil,”</p><p>“What?” Alex asks. Julie hands him the flyer and their setlist as an answer. “Oh, we’re playing a school dance?” He doesn’t sound disappointed, just like he wants to make sure he understood.</p><p>“Yep, and that’s the setlist, if you approve,” Julie answers, her giddy smile back on her face.</p><p>Alex hums, “Are we not playing any slow songs?” He looks at Luke.</p><p>“Well, I don’t really have any,” He ducks his head a bit, and it’s easy for Reggie to imagine that, if he were alive, he would be blushing.</p><p>“Really? Let me look at your notebook.” Julie demands. Luke hands it over to her with no objection, but not before noticing the country song Reggie managed to slip in and giving him a joking glare, watching her with little interest as she flips through it. “Ooh, who’s Emily?” She teases the notebook left open in her hand at a song titled “Unsaid Emily”. Reggie feels his chest tighten fractionally at the memory of what the song means, especially to Luke, who doesn’t usually get sentimental when writing.</p><p>“Wow, I didn’t know you were such a romantic,” She giggles.</p><p>“He isn’t, she was—” Alex starts, cut off by Luke’s hand on his chest and him saying, “No one, let it go and tell me if you find any slow songs there.”</p><p>“Ok, well,” She flips through the rest of the book, “Here, this one seems slow, ‘When We’re Older’” She announces, flipping it around for everyone to see.</p><p>“Ok, I wrote that when I was 14, so it’s not that good, let’s just stick with what we have,” Luke tries to deflect.</p><p>“Wait, let me read it,” Alex dismisses him. He quickly looks over the page, humming in approval. “We’re playing this,” He decides, giving Luke a pointed glare, that Reggie can’t decipher, which makes Luke bow his head like a scolded child.</p><p>Before anyone else gets a chance to add anything, Flynn is making a grand entrance to the studio. She dramatically flings her arms out and says, “I have arrived. So, what did the boys say to the gig, are they in?”</p><p>“Yeah, they’re helping make a setlist. Speaking of, what do you think of this song?” Julie holds the notebook out to her. Flynn looks over the song, her silence making Reggie a bit nervous, though he couldn’t pinpoint why.</p><p>“Well, it sure looks pretty good. Who wrote it?” Flynn finally says, passing the book back to Julie.</p><p>“Luke did,” Flynn makes a noise of surprise, causing Luke to gasp in offense.</p><p>“Chill, Luke, she didn’t mean anything bad by it,” Julie giggles.</p><p>“Wait, are they here?” Flynn waves in greeting, oblivious to the fact that she’s facing away from them, fixing her mistake when Julie turns her around, and they all happily wave back.</p><p>“We’re gonna practice if you want to stick around,” Julie offers, and before Flynn can reply, Carlos is storming into the studio. Reggie feels like he has whiplash from all the new arrivals in the last three minutes.</p><p>“Hey, remember those ghost orbs in dad’s pictures?” Carlos starts. “Well, I’ve been doing some research, and salt burns their souls out, so you don’t have to worry about any ghosts being in here,” He smiles, proud of himself, and begins to fling salt around the room. Now, Reggie used to consider himself a skeptical person, but the idea of the salt burning his soul out, terrifies him, so it is completely not his fault that he squeals when the salt is thrown in his direction. The salt may be an untested theory, but when Alex lets out a noise akin to a wolf’s howl, Reggie feels his chest clench, and fear rush through him at the thought of losing one part of his family. And then Alex is standing up, and he’s fine, and the salt hasn’t done anything to him. Well, Carlos doesn’t need to know that it doesn’t work. Luckily, Flynn is able to distract the wannabe ghost hunter, so the rest of them can get back to their rehearsal.</p><p>“Ok, one final check, we’re adding ‘When We’re Older’ to the list, and what are we getting rid of?” Julie asks.</p><p>“How about this one?” Alex points to one in the middle of the list.</p><p>“No, dude, we can’t get rid of that one. Listen to this riff and tell me we’re getting rid of it,” Luke grabs his guitar and plays a riff, effectively proving his point that the song should stay, at least Reggie thinks so until Julie tells them that it’s already been used by a guy named Trevor Wilson, who happens to be Bobby. And then Reggie’s world is falling apart, again. He doesn’t know what to do with the information, he can’t imagine Bobby, the Bobby that would stay with them when they needed extra comfort, the Bobby that shared so many parts of himself with people he considered brothers. Maybe he didn’t know Bobby as well as he thought he did. He can tell that the same thoughts are going through Luke and Alex’s heads; Alex looks hurt and Luke is practically fuming as he demands Julie to tell them where Bobby lives.</p><p>“No, no way, he was your friend I get it,” she continues before Luke can cut in. “but, whatever you guys want to do to him, it isn’t right. Look, we have our first gig in four days, can we just focus on that instead?”</p><p>“Not right now, Julie. If you’re not going to help us, then we’ll find someone who can. I promise it won’t interfere with the dance, but this needs to be done.” Luke says sternly. “Alex, take us to your ghost friend, maybe he can help us,” Alex agrees easily, affected by the same righteous indignation as Luke, Reggie just follows along, wanting answers.</p><p>+++</p><p>“Willie!” Alex yells. Reggie isn’t sure if he can see him, or if he’s just hoping it will summon him. They’re out near the Orpheum again, walking through the crowd seamlessly. Alex yells again, and when a guy with long hair stops his skateboard, Reggie knows that Alex had seen him when he was yelling.</p><p>“Hey, are these your friends? I’m Willie,” His smile is blinding, and Reggie completely understands Alex’s slight infatuation with him.</p><p>“I’m Reggie,”</p><p>“I’m Luke. We were wondering if you could help us get revenge on our friend. We want to be visible so he knows we’re there, but we can’t do it on our own,” Luke seems to have calmed down a bit on their walk, but Reggie knows that the anger he was feeling before is still there.</p><p>“Well, I can’t help you myself, but I do know someone that can. He’ll be here on Friday, I can set up a meeting, probably at 6.” Willie offers.</p><p>“Yeah, that works, thanks, man.” Luke shakes his hand, looking more relaxed with a plan.</p><p>“Thanks, Willie. We should probably go, Julie wants to rehearse, but I’ll see you around.” Alex smiles at him, and Reggie notices that he’s never seen Alex smile at someone like that, he may be putting 2 and 2 together wrong, but it looks like Alex has a crush. Reggie feels giddy at the news, ready to tease him instead of being the one to get teased.</p><p>Willie waves to them and takes off on his skateboard again, leaving them to get back to the studio and Julie.</p><p>
  <strong>“But he didn’t come and speak to me or put my mind at ease.”</strong>
</p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Girl Crush</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow, five more parts. This feels like my child, a really poorly written child, but I still love it the same. I hope you guys are enjoying it nonetheless. All the comments that I have been getting are absolutely making my day, so if you feel like leaving any note behind, please do!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie quickly learned that having a crush monumentally sucked, especially when that crush happened to be on one of your best friends. It was made even worse when he was forced to watch him look at Julie like she was everything that he needed. Thus, making rehearsals almost dreadfully painful for him. He considered himself lucky that no one seemed to pick up on his dour disposition; it meant that he wouldn’t have to have any unwanted conversations.  Alex had been giving him confused faces when he happened to turn towards him, but Reggie was certain that he wouldn’t say anything unless Reggie brought it up himself.</p><p>Currently, Luke and Julie were sharing a microphone and singing the lyrics to “Now or Never”, the part where Reggie would usually be next to Luke, but now he’s stuck in his spot. He’s doing minimal movements, backing away from the mic when he isn’t singing, bobbing his head in time with his playing. He feels a bit lackluster, but he doesn’t really feel like giving it any luster at the moment, so he continues with his lazy movements.</p><p>When the song finishes, they call a ten-minute break, where Julie goes to hydrate and get a snack. The three of them stay behind, not needing to replenish anything since they never really run out of energy anymore.</p><p>“We’re doing great, guys, and it’s only been two days,” Luke grins. He’s turned so that he’s facing both Alex, who’s still at his drum set, and Reggie, who’s absentmindedly messing with the keys of his bass, likely messing up the tuning, but that was a problem for future Reggie to deal with.</p><p>“Hell yeah, we’re gonna be killer by Friday,” Alex flips one of his drumsticks in the air and catches it easily. Luke laughs at that, turning back around and checking over his equipment.</p><p>Reggie watches him; the way he flicks his head the slightest amount to get the ends of his hair away from his eyes, the careful way he fixes his tuning, with skilled ears and small twists of the keys, the way he makes sure to put his guitar down before he bends over to check his pedals.</p><p>When Luke stands up again Reggie quickly averts his gaze, feeling the phantom heat of a blush rising to his cheeks, silently praying whatever god there is that it isn’t visible. He distracts himself with retuning his bass, and by the time he’s finished, Julie is back. Then they’re playing Luke’s song, “When We’re Older”, and Reggie barely plays during the song, so he’s paying more attention to Luke, who keeps looking over to Julie as he sings the words to what can only be described as a love song. And if Reggie wasn’t already sure that Luke would never like him like that, he’s sure that the sound of his heartbreaking because of this stupid boy would be almost audible.</p><p>+++</p><p>The next day is much the same. They’re stuck rehearsing after Julie gets back from school, and then they only have, at most, two hours before she has to go do homework and eat dinner. Reggie has to give her props for her effort, especially when she has schoolwork. But, still, he feels a bit bitter when he sees the looks that they give each other, no matter how much he may be fond of her.</p><p>This time, though, Flynn is sitting on the couch and watching them practice. They were all unsure if she would be able to see them, the constraints of their ghost visibility are a little blurry.</p><p>Some things are revealed when Flynn squeals that she’s actually able to see them, and for most of the time that they’re playing her vision doesn’t see to waver. They even manage to stay visible between songs, which entails a bit more joking around with Flynn than would usually be possible. And Reggie takes the distraction happily, paying less attention to Luke and Julie.</p><p>“Reggie, that was absolutely wonderful, darling,” Flynn says in a bad imitation of a posh British accent.</p><p>“Many thanks, Governor,” Reggie quips, tipping an imaginary hat to her. She breaks into laughter, which uses her whole body. Her eyes squeeze closed, and her hands move to cover her mouth, while her knees are brought up into her chest and she leans back on the couch. She doesn’t seem close to stopping anytime soon.</p><p>Reggie is sure that the joke wasn’t as funny as she makes it seem, but he feels a similar feeling bubbling inside of him, ready to push itself out at the slightest thing that he found funny. Which happens a lot quicker than he would have imagined, but apparently seeing Flynn cackling and curled in on herself is just the push that he needed to double over in his own bout of laughter.</p><p>“Guys, can you please pull it together, we still have some parts to work here,” Luke sounds annoyed.</p><p>“Sorry, sorry, that was just,” Reggie’s laughing is slowly dying down, and so is Flynn’s, but they haven’t fully stopped yet. “That was just so funny,” Reggie’s breathing a bit heavier to try and regain the air that he lost. Both of them have stopped laughing, though they are stuck with smiles that they are trying to stave off.</p><p>“Can we just get back to rehearsing before Julie has to go, please?” Luke grumbles something under his breath that Reggie doesn’t catch.</p><p>They easily start up the section they need to work on. Reggie is grateful that he knows his part well so that he doesn’t mess up when he realizes that this is the same way he was acting the previous weekend. He couldn’t pinpoint what was making him so tense, the only common denominator seemed to be Reggie himself, but he couldn’t fathom what he was doing to make him act like that. It’s not like Reggie was meaning to antagonize him, and it wasn’t in Luke’s character to be mad at a few jokes during their practices.</p><p>Deciding to put it out of his mind, for the time being, Reggie pulls himself back to the song they are working on, perfecting Luke’s guitar and Julie’s piano. He pays attention to Luke, who cuts off, with a bit of a frustrated huff. He quickly tries to fix the riff, but he hits a wrong note, and he huffs angrily again. This goes on for a few minutes, Luke trying to get the riff right, but messing up a small part that’s barely even noticeable and then cutting himself off with a puff of air that quickly became a grunt of anger.</p><p>“Ok, let’s call it a night, we can practice our parts on our own and we have two more days still, it’ll be fine,” Alex says. He moves from behind his drums and moves to put a hand on Luke’s shoulder to get him to stop. It works a bit, but Reggie can see in the hunch of his shoulders that Luke is still tense.</p><p>“That sounds good,” Julie agrees, obviously seeing how overworked Luke seems. “Luke, don’t work yourself too hard ok? Just take a breather and come back if you really want to. Take care of yourself.” She smiles, and pats his shoulder, motioning for Flynn to follow her out of the studio. She does follow her, waving to them as she leaves.</p><p>“Luke, what was that? Are you doing alright?” Alex asks when the door closes with a soft thud.</p><p>“Nothing, I’m just still a little wound up about Bobby is all, and we’ll deal with that on Friday, so I’ll just forget about it for now,” That seems reasonable to Reggie, what Bobby did was out of character for him and Reggie still feels a wave of slight anger at the memory of learning what he did.</p><p>“Sure, man, just let us know if something is bothering you so you don’t hurt yourself or yell at us anymore,” Alex says, ever the band mom.</p><p>Luke nods demurely, seemingly having calmed down somewhat from his previous anger. Alex pats him on the back, and moving to flop onto the couch, assuming a position that reflects relaxation, and closes his eyes. Luke goes back to practicing his riff, apparently calm enough to focus on playing it.</p><p>“I’m gonna go outside,” Reggie announces, heading out of the studio. He hears Alex’s grunt in acknowledgment as he phases through the door.</p><p>It’s about 5 in the evening, which, for this part of California, wouldn’t be too cold, especially in the middle of October, but Reggie can’t feel what most people would consider jacket weather. The sun is barely setting, casting a light pink and orange glow across most of the yard.</p><p>Reggie may not be the most observant, but he’s always found solace in reflecting. It’s something he really started around the time his dad got physical, trying to figure out what he did wrong to deserve it. That really isn’t his happiest memory, the one he can pinpoint is the night that his friends saw how bad his parents fought. He remembers how they all hugged him, how Luke put on Greenday to drown them out.</p><p>He remembers his mom telling him that as long as he had his friends by his side, nothing could ever really hurt him. That was one of the last things she told him, the very last thing she said before Reggie left was that she was proud of him. That isn’t something he liked to dwell on, he can imagine her getting the news that her only son died, and she was stuck with an asshole of a husband, who wouldn’t care at all. He can’t imagine what that must have been like for her, mourning the loss of your child with no one beside you for comfort.</p><p>He quickly derails that train of thought, trying to take in the moment around him and now what was the past now. He looks at the soft lighting cutting through the jungle that is the Molina’s foliage, imagining that he can feel the slight heat that he would feel if he were alive. He imagines that he’s a lizard, stretched out on a rock, heating himself through nature. It helps to ground him, bring him back to where he is, and not what could have been.</p><p>His original reason for going inside is forgotten for the time being, and he stands in the yard, quieter than normal and basking at the area around him.</p><p>+++</p><p>Thursday’s rehearsal was much the same as their first rehearsal. Smooth playing, stopping infrequently when someone needs to work on a part. Filled with many of the same glances Reggie always made towards Luke.</p><p>But, now it’s Friday, the day of the dance and the time for them to meet Willie’s friend is drawing near. They’re meeting at six forty-five, which leaves a three-hour window to get to Julie’s school on time.  </p><p>He’s sure that if they were stuck in school, Alex would be stressing about the timeline, but he seems laidback as he sits behind his drums, quietly practicing his rhythms.</p><p>Luke seems similar to how he always is, judging by how he is reclining on the couch, his eyes closed and his foot tapping a rhythm in the air to match whatever song he’s humming.</p><p>But Reggie, he’s worried. He’s worried about his friends, for their want to get revenge, and for Bobby, who never seemed like he would be the type to falsely steal his own best friend’s music. He’s worried for Julie because this is her first actual gig and God knows how nerve-wracking that is. And he’s worried about this ghost they’re going to meet.  He knows nothing about him other than that he might be able to help his friends get some kind of revenge. What Reggie does know is that he has a really bad feeling about this guy.</p><p>Of course, he trusts Alex’s judgment, Willie really does seem like a nice guy, but what kind of dead guy just knows another ghost, or potentially not-ghost, that can help them do something bad? He’s just off-put; he has to be confident. Willie is a trustworthy guy so he must know trustworthy people. Reggie settles into a calm at that thought. Everything is going to be fine.</p><p>+++</p><p>Julie gets home at the usual time of almost four, but still technically three. She comes straight to the studio, her bag still slung over one of her shoulders. It gets thrown on the couch, and before anyone can get a word in, she quickly brings them into a short rehearsal.</p><p>Reggie is a little amazed at how he sees her body relax as they start the first song. He can tell that his earlier worries about her were probably unfounded, and he had nothing to worry about. In the short time he’s known Julie, he can tell that she thrives on music. There’s a sharp contrast to the Julie they met that screamed at them and the one moving around them now.</p><p>Luke seemingly notices too because he has this goofy face-splitting grin on his face. Reggie can almost hear the laugh that is hanging on his lips as he sings; it feels almost sickening.</p><p>And then he actually hears Alex laugh, and he feels guilty. For being jealous of something that wasn’t his and almost ruining a nice moment between bandmates.</p><p>The moment is quickly gone, and they’re transitioning to the next song; Luke softly plays chords along with Julie’s piano and Reggie knows they’re made for each other just by the way Julie has a small, almost private, smile on her face and Luke is making a similar.</p><p>The rest of the rehearsal is much the same, Luke and Julie being borderline flirty and Alex laughing and Reggie feeling dejected but doing his best not to show it.</p><p>“Ok, we go on at nine ten, so be there at nine, the latest, go it?” Julie looks at each of them pointedly. They all unanimously say some form of the word “yes” and that gets Julie to giggle.</p><p>“Good, now go out there and do what you have to,” She makes a shooing motion with her hands, an obvious signal that they should get a move on.</p><p>“See you at nine!” Alex exclaims, letting Reggie and Luke get a wave in before he tells them where they are meeting Willie. They're gone with a few more waves at Julie and Reggie feels the courage that he was pretending earlier fill him as they make their way towards some unknown acquaintance. </p><p>
  <strong>“I got a heart rush, it ain’t slowing down.”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Eat That Rat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow, here it is, a month after the last update. This chapter was just tough for me to write apparently, but if you've been waiting for an update, I hope this is satisfactory. Anyway, I hope y'all had a good holiday season! Also, I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but don't worry about any discrepancies between this and what actually happened on the show. I'm taking this my own way, so any changes are definitely worth it.<br/>Only four more chapters left! Part four, here we come.</p><p>Edit: Forgot to add the obligatory playlist link at the end of part three. Eat your hearts out.  <br/>https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zbnKaN0PhcmmvXRMmyAPy</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they meet Willie, he leads them to a club that is seemingly located in an abandoned hotel far out in the hills. Willie gives a short summary of where they are going and who they are meeting.</p><p>His name is Caleb, and apparently, he has been dead for centuries and is able to make himself and other ghosts visible at will. That’s what he does at his club. Willie mentioned that there were a lot of venues around the world, and they were lucky that Friday happened to be the night that they performed in LA.</p><p>Reggie can’t help but feel that this seems too good to be true. How could there just happen to be some ghost that would know how to solve their issue of Bobby? It didn’t fit right.</p><p>Reggie trusts Alex, but Willie is a different topic. He’s known him for a few hours, and that doesn’t feel like enough time to actually know if someone is being truthful, at least for Reggie. Luke seems almost as taken with the boy as Alex does, which is almost scary considering Reggie can absolutely tell that Alex likes him, in a more than friendly way.</p><p>Putting all his doubts and bad feelings aside, Reggie tries to see the good in Willie and the potential good in his friend. He can use the walk to figure out what his friends are thinking and adapt to it. And it’s a long way to the Hotel California.</p><p>+++</p><p>The Hollywood Ghost Club is about as intimidating as Reggie imagined from Willie’s description. It looks almost like a castle from the outside, probably smaller than they were in England.</p><p>Wille guides them through a door that Reggie thinks he would have missed if he were alone. They go down a few halls, decorated fashionably in a style that looks like that of the 1920s, ending up at the entrance to what looks like a ballroom.</p><p>“Ok, you guys wait here, I’m gonna go tell Caleb you’re here.” Willie leaves them at the top of the stairs, stairs that lead to a floor lined with tables that are filled with men and women that are dressed as lavishly as the building is decorated, sticking with the theme of 1920s socialites.</p><p>“Can I just say that this place feels a little weird?” Reggie says, leaning over the railing.</p><p>“Yeah, feels kind of weird, but I trust Willie. If you need me, I’ll be hiding behind Luke.” Alex proceeds to use Luke’s body as a sort of human shield.</p><p>“Guys,” Luke pulls Alex from behind him, “Focus, we need to find out what this Caleb Covington knows so that we can get payback for what Bobby did to us, it doesn’t matter if this place gives you the heebie-jeebies, or whatever.”</p><p>Before either can respond to that, Willie is back and he’s leading them down the stairs and into the crowd of people.</p><p>“So, Willie, what is this place exactly, are all these people ghosts?” Alex asks.</p><p>“Oh, no, they’re all lifers. This club is made for rich people to get a taste of the afterlife.” Willie effortlessly walks backward through the crowd. “Caleb puts on a show for his members around the globe, ___” He explains. “This is where we’ll be sitting, feel free to help yourself to anything you see.”</p><p>The first thing Reggie sees on the table is a few trays of food. He goes straight for them without much thought, feeling delighted when the chewed food doesn’t fall right through him like in a cartoon. When he looks back at his friends, he sees they are all staring at him.</p><p>“What,” Reggie says after a harsh swallow. “It’s good,”</p><p>“You just keep being you, Reg,” Luke smiles, going for his own taste of the food, Alex following behind. It’s clear that their ways of shoveling food into their mouths haven’t changed, a fact that has Reggie smiling as he watches his friends.</p><p>It didn’t take long for the show to start. The lights dimmed, the audience quietened, and a loud voice announced Caleb Covington’s entrance.</p><p>Caleb appears first, floating far off the ground, much to the awe of the people around him. He starts with a small speech about the afterlife before he vanishes and reappears with his band. Reggie thinks that he sees Caleb wink at him.</p><p>The band is a fair size, made up of mainly brass instruments, and for some reason, women. But they know how to play, and especially together. Proven as each instrument blends together to make the sound of jazz. Caleb joins in after a few measures, singing though. Reggie has to give him credit, he can sing. He has the voice for jazz, and it blends perfectly with the harsh sounds of the trumpets that overpower most of the band. Reggie is officially entranced. He can’t help but watch with rapt attention as Caleb prances around the stage, throwing in little tricks that can only be attributed to his ghostly powers. He’s slowly joined by some dancers, also up to the 1920s dress code.</p><p>Reggie shakes himself out of his trance for a second, feeling embarrassed by the ogling that he was doing. He was sure that he was very close to having drool run down his chin. He quickly looks around the table to make sure that none of his friends saw his blunder. They didn’t, based on how they all have their eyes focused on the performance, though not in the drooling way that Reggie had.</p><p>Returning his attention back to the stage, Reggie almost immediately falls back into his previous trance, eyes caught on Caleb, who keeps looking back. It’s addicting to see Caleb on stage, seemingly in his element; he walks like he owns the place (which he does) and sings with a power that Reggie has never seen.</p><p>The next thing he knows, Alex is snapping his fingers in front of his face and saying his name.</p><p>“Reg, you good?” He looks concerned, standing in front of Reggie.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, I’m good. Show over?” Reggie responds, trying to act like he hadn’t just lost the last however long the show went on for.</p><p>“Yeah, a few minutes ago. Willie’s going to take us to see Caleb.” Alex pulls him up, ready to move to wherever they are supposed to meet the magician, but they don’t make it away from the table, due to the object of Reggie’s fascination appearing right in front of them.</p><p>“Ah, Willie! These must be your friends.” Caleb Covington is more captivating in person. His smile is charming, and his eyes seem to bore into Reggie’s soul. He would almost categorize the look as a leer if he wasn’t so enamored already.</p><p>“Yeah, this is Alex, Luke, and Reggie.” Willie points to each of them as he says their names.</p><p>“Very nice to meet you all,” Reggie feels like Caleb’s eyes keep coming back to him, staying longer than on the others. “I hear that you are in need of my skills,”</p><p>“That was an amazing show by the way,” Luke says, Caleb smiles in what appears to be pride. “But we are here to see if you can help us do what you do.”</p><p>“Well, I’ve heard that you three already have some impressive skills. I’ve been dead for centuries, and I’ve never met any ghosts that can make themselves visible to lifers, especially in the sense that you can,” Caleb says.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, we can’t do it on command, and the situation we’re in can’t be done through the stage,” Luke explains. “This friend of ours ripped us off big time and we want to look him in the face when he admits what he did to us.”</p><p>“Hm, well, we’re at a party! We don’t need to dwell on people who have wronged us, and I’m sure that your dream is to settle a score. No, you’re like me, meant for the stage, to perform for sold-out crowds.” He motions to the seats around the table. “What if I were to tell you, with the snap of my fingers you could be sharing the spotlight with me and join my house band.” He leans in conspiratorially, leaving a few hand gestures as he gives his pitch.</p><p>“We already have a band, but thanks for the offer,” Alex says.</p><p>“Ah, I know, but after you’re done performing, you disappear. Here, you get to stay, relish in the bow and the applause. You get that connection with the audience, and here, all these people know what you are and just how special you are.”</p><p>“Well, I mean, it could be pretty cool to play in the band,” Reggie agrees, ignoring the slightly incredulous look that gets him from Alex and the minor hurt from Luke.</p><p>“Thank about it. I have to go pay the bills, I’ll be back later to check in,” Caleb smiles his charming smile again, and then he’s walking over to a woman, that Reggie can only guess as to who she is and what Caleb is going to do with her.</p><p>“Well, let’s just go have a look around, chat with some of these people. They seem pretty interested in meeting us. We can debrief later, on the whole, band thing.” Luke says, gesturing to all the people around them, some of which Reggie notices have a look on their face that seems to say that they are itching to talk to them.</p><p>Looking over to Alex and Willie, Reggie sees that they have already delved into their own conversation, so he gently diverts Luke across the room to some of the lifers.</p><p>They stop when a couple waves them over, wearing matching outfits, a white suit, and a flapper’s dress. They seem nice, interested in their stories. He asks about their life, what they are doing with their new afterlife.  Nothing too invasive, just seemingly getting an idea about what being dead might be like.</p><p>“So, Luke, Reggie, how did you die?” The man in the suit asks, taking leisurely sips of the champagne he’s holding. And of course, he was building to that.</p><p>“Oh, well, it’s a pretty lame story, but we ate some bad hot dogs, had an emotional few minutes in an ambulance, and that was that.” Luke laughs as if it wasn’t a fresh wound, but at least the couple laughs too, keeping the conversation from turning awkward.</p><p>“Well, that is a way to go.” The man chuckles. “Now, tell me, you’ve been ghosts for only a few days, and you died in the 90s, correct?” He barely pauses to let them respond. “Have you noticed a change in the attitudes of people towards,” He pauses as if thinking of the right word to say, “people that are like you?”</p><p>The question gives both Reggie and Luke pause. It’s a vague question, and Reggie isn’t sure he understands what is being asked of him. Luke seems pleased to let Reggie take over the answer.</p><p>“You mean, have we noticed if people treat ghosts differently?” Reggie asks. “Well, I mean, when we were alive, we didn’t think that ghosts were actually real, and we were never in this scene, so I can’t say that I have seen any kind of change. You’d have to ask Caleb or someone else,”</p><p>“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant,” The man chuckles again, and it makes Reggie feel small. “I mean, you two are obviously, well, for lack of a better word, queer. I was simply curious if you found the year 2020 to be more kind to the likes of you.”</p><p>Luke makes a startled gasp; Reggie imagines that if he were drinking something it would have gone all over the couple. He wouldn’t blame him, that was the rudest question he’s ever heard anyone ask.</p><p>“Oh no, you’ve got it all wrong, man. Reginald and I are strictly friends, nothing else is going on. And to answer your question, 2020 does seem a lot friendlier towards everyone,” Luke says. Reggie feels like he didn’t finish that sentence and is holding his breath as he waits for the conclusion, preferably something that will tell the man off for his behavior. “Until we meet people like you,”</p><p>Reggie doesn’t get a chance to see their reaction, because Luke is grabbing him by the elbow and pulling him back towards where Alex is sitting by himself, watching the spot where Willie has walked away. He does get to revel in the pettiness that is Luke Patterson when someone has been mean to him or his friends.</p><p>“Oh, hey guys,” Alex smiles, still looking a little distracted by thoughts of Willie. “How was the mingling?”</p><p>“Ah, you know, the usual. ‘How’d you die?’ ‘What’s it like being gay?’ Nothing out of the ordinary.” Luke answers sarcastically, obviously still peeved at their previous conversation.</p><p>“Wow, really? That’s just rude,”</p><p>“I know, but I totally told him off,” Luke does love boasting about anything mildly cool he did, especially if he can embellish some.</p><p>“Nice, dude.” Alex fist bumps him. “I bet Julie would have gone wild if she were here,”</p><p>That sentence seems to get the ball rolling on all of their memories.</p><p>“Shit! What time is it?” The three begin a frantic search for a clock.</p><p>Reggie spots a large one on the opposite side of the room. “It’s eleven, we’re two hours late. We have to go.” They begin to rush towards the exit, making far less of a scene than one would expect. They manage to keep to themselves, anyone that would have been bumped into only gets a slight chill through their arm when they make contact. They’re almost to the door when Caleb reappears in front of them.</p><p>“Ah, Gentlemen, you seem in a hurry.” Reggie definitely sees him leering this time.</p><p>“Yeah, we made a promise to Julie and now we’ve kinda broken it, so if you could just let us,” Luke makes a motion about going around him, pointing towards the exit.</p><p>“Yes, I can understand a human promise. Before you go, have you given thought to my offer?” Caleb seems to be patiently waiting for an answer, hands clasped behind his back and gaze flickering over all of their faces, still lingering just a tad too long on Reggie.</p><p>“Yeah, sorry, we aren’t interested, we have our own band,” Luke answers, moving to try and get around him, only to be stopped once again, though this time by Caleb physically, spectrally feels more appropriate.</p><p>“Ok, well I’ll give you three my stamp if you ever want to change your mind or just come for a visit.” Caleb’s smile is something on the edge of creepy, Reggie decides then that his initial feelings were correct after all. Smile aside, they accept the stamp, watching in something akin to fascination as Caleb waves his hand over theirs and they see a bright purple logo flash across the back of their hand, like some kind of brand marking them as property. The light disappears almost as soon as it had appeared, the only reminder of the stamp is a strange feeling in the pit of Reggie’s stomach.</p><p>“There, you’re welcome any time,” Caleb flashes one last smile before he disappears again. Reggie tries not to think that that line was directed specifically at him.</p><p>Reggie looks over to Alex and Luke, who both seem ok about that interaction. No one says anything though, they simply communicate through eye contact, and even then, Reggie isn’t sure if he knows what they are thinking, or even if they know what he’s feeling. But they quickly leave the Hollywood Ghost Club, making a straight dive for Los Feliz High School.</p><p>+++</p><p>Reggie may not have gone to school here when he was alive, but the empty gym that features Julie and Flynn in the middle surrounded by balloons gives him a sad image of one of his first high school dances. He tried asking a girl, Stacey Rhinebeck, to go with him and she had agreed, but then she stood him up the night of. Reggie decides that the three of them are Stacey in this situation.</p><p>“Where were you guys?” Julie growls (That’s the only way to describe it, though it has a hint of betrayal) as soon as she sees them standing in the doorway.</p><p>“Julie, we’re so sorry,” Luke starts, already adopting his kicked puppy look.</p><p>“They’re here?” Flynn’s actually sounds like a threatening growl. Reggie can imagine that she would be the mother lion to Julie’s cub.</p><p>“Yeah, in the door,” All of Julie’s fight seems to have left her when she points them out. She looks deflated where she sits in her retro-inspired outfit, shoulders hunched, almost curled fully in on herself.</p><p>“You assholes! You promised her that you would be there for her, but you just made a fool of her.” Flynn is standing now, marching right towards where they’re standing. If he hadn’t met her before he would think that she could see them with how she kept sharp eye contact through her whole rant. “Julie doesn’t need more people to stand her up, she was just getting back into music, you three gave her hope, and this is the welcome you give her? Disgraceful,”</p><p>Flynn has her arms across her chest that is rapidly rising and falling, a sure sign of her anger. Reggie decides that this is ultimately worse than Alex when he becomes the angry mother at them.</p><p>“Julie, can you please call off your guard dog?” Luke tries to joke. Reggie knows that he definitely just wants to have an actual conversation with Julie that isn’t Flynn chewing them all out. But it seems that they aren’t going to get that, at least not tonight, because Julie is walking past them, hand on Flynn’s forearm and taking her as she goes. She throws back one more hurt look as they leave the gym.</p><p>“Man, we’ve really fucked up now,” Alex comments. And Reggie has to agree. How are they ever going to make this up to her?</p><p>
  <strong>“You got all the power (and the ceremonies)”</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Tug of War Kid</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am very sorry to anyone that has been painstakingly waiting these last two months for an update. Life really caught up with me and I was having a bit of a writer's block, but I did it and I always have a lot of fun writing these chapters, especially when I cross-reference with the show and realize that I completely changed something, but that's the fun of fanfiction. Anyway, sorry for the long wait.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Being in the studio without Julie there to help them practice did not feel right to Reggie. It felt emptier and made it feel a lot worse that they had stood up someone that was so nice and had finally been able to do something she loved because of them. In the back of his mind, Reggie knew that he was not the one that was supposed to go through the five stages of grief, but it felt hard not to with how Julie was giving them a modified version of the silent treatment as well as the residual memories of Flynn’s yelling. But, having reached acceptance, he feels a need to try and make it up to her. He knows that Luke and Alex are on the same page, likely minus most of the grief that Reggie went through because they have just dragged Reggie away from his melancholic bass plucking to go out and find a way to make it up to her.</p><p>“Let’s try and get another gig!” Luke suddenly exclaims, causing everyone to stop where they are, which causes a few unpleasant seconds in which many people walk through them before they can move out of the way.</p><p>“How are we gonna do that, I mean, no one can see us, so we can’t just walk up and ask for one,” Alex points out, sounding as dejected as Reggie has been feeling.</p><p>“We don’t have to,” Luke smirks. “If we can find a place that has sign-ups, we can put Julie and the Phantoms down. These ghost powers are not going to waste, guys!” Reggie notes that Luke is just about bouncing as he rolls his feet, an obvious sign of excitement for him.</p><p>“That might just work,” Alex agrees, making a face that conveys how impressed he is.</p><p>“So, do you guys think that coffee shops still do open mic?” Luke asks, looking at something behind Luke and Reggie.</p><p>“I mean, why wouldn’t they, that would be so wrong if they weren’t anymore,” Reggie says, feeling angry at the thought of denying the arts to people.</p><p>“Well then, let’s go check it out.” Luke’s smile is dazzling, Reggie cannot help but notice it as Luke begins to walk towards them. Quickly turning to make sure he stays with the group; Reggie spots their destination, a coffee shop across the street from them that he decides does look like it would be the type of coffee shop to hold open mic nights.</p><p>The interior is almost completely parallel to what a coffee shop should look like, though the only thing making Reggie think that is the stage in the middle of the room that looks to be at least ten feet long, with large pillars in the corners. Not something that is typical of coffee shops, it feels too industrial. But it does look like the place that would host concerts of a type.</p><p>“Ok, let’s scope the place out, see if we can find anything that would mean a show. Meet back here in ten,” Luke orders. Reggie and Alex nod and they all separate, going off in different directions.</p><p>Reggie goes straight for the counter, while Luke goes to the front window and Alex takes the stage. The counter has some bar stools set against it, and the glass top has many posters laid across it, as well as taped to the bottom, likely to deter people from removing them. Most of the posters hold no value: flyers for lost pets, invitations to groups, a few therapy flyers, offers of tutoring in any subject (There’s only one phone number tab left). In the middle, towards the cash register, Reggie finally spots something that could help, a poster that boasts the shop's open mic nights “every day except Sunday and Monday”.</p><p>Giddily, Reggie rushes over to Luke, babbling about the poster.</p><p>“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that it’s Tuesday,” Luke matches Reggie’s smile tooth for tooth, giving him a slap on the shoulder that makes Reggie grin goofily at him.</p><p>“Yeah, let’s get Alex and look for sign-ups.”</p><p>Finding Alex is the easy part, he was towards the bathrooms where only old posters for past live shows hung. The sign-ups were a completely different topic.</p><p>There was not a clear paper that they could see, and any sign of where to look was covered. It would have been easy to ask someone if it were not for the fact that there was only one person that could see them, and she was currently angry at them.</p><p>“Should we wait around and see if someone comes around?” Alex asks.</p><p>“I mean, it’s all we really have right now, and we don’t have much else to do.” Luke shrugs, deciding that they would stay for a while. As a group, they all move to a table that is only occupied by one woman that is using her phone to take pictures of her pastry.</p><p>“Man, 2020 is weird,” Reggie mumbles into his hands as he watches her looking intensely at her screen. He decides that simply watching her is starting to get boring and opts to mess with her instead by grabbing the edge of her plate and moving it around the table’s surface. He can hear Luke stifling his giggles like they would get in trouble, which only entices him to keep up the movement.</p><p>“They never take their eyes off their phones,” Reggie says when he finally stops messing with the woman, who promptly walks away with her pastry when she gets it back, furtive looks around the room as she goes.</p><p>Luke opens his mouth, ready to say something, but before he can, all three of them are hit with a shockwave of energy. They all cry out at the zap, a pain that ripped through their bodies and felt like it made their hearts stop for a second.</p><p>“What was that?” Alex yells. “Are we dying again?” His voice is full of panic as he says it, lighter in a way that Reggie never likes to hear.</p><p>“No way, that was probably just some weird side effect of eating all that food yesterday, I mean, no stomach and all,” Luke says, though he does not sound that sure of his answer.</p><p>“That felt like that time I tried fixing my amp in the rain,” Reggie comments, hand absentmindedly rubbing at his chest. He feels Luke glare at him briefly, still mad about that incident.</p><p>“You sho – wait, is that Willie?” Alex asks, not waiting for a response before he quickly runs out of the coffee shop to where he must have seen Willie standing.</p><p>“Well, that’s a way to combat phone zombism,” Reggie jokes, glowing when he gets a huff of laughter from Luke.</p><p>+++</p><p>After what felt like hours to Reggie, but could have only been about thirty minutes, a man enters the shop. He looks professional, carrying a clipboard and files, dressed in an upscale yet casual way, button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up with nice jeans and pointy shoes.</p><p>Reggie is impressed by his aura, momentarily forgetting himself as he watches the man walk confidently to the counter. He comes back to himself when the man stops, placing his clipboard and files on the counter.</p><p>“Here’s the list for tonight,” He leans on the counter a bit, something Reggie would describe as flirty. “Can you make me up one of those lattes?” His voice is smooth as he asks the woman at the till.</p><p>“Dude, that’s what we need!” Luke’s voice startles him enough that Reggie jumps, causing Luke to put a calming hand on his shoulder. Reggie feels heat in his stomach, not saying anything as he watches Luke sneakily write their name at the bottom of the list.</p><p>“Sick, now let’s go and get ready. Julie’s definitely going to forgive us now,” Luke beams. Reggie wishes that he could have Luke’s eternal optimism about everything, but he supposes that is what makes Luke “Luke”, and he could not take it from him.</p><p>+++</p><p>“Man, what are we supposed to do until Julie gets home?” Reggie complains from where he is lounging in one of the Molina’s armchairs.</p><p>“I don’t know, I’m sure you can find something.” Alex looks more relaxed where he is lounging across the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table and head tilted against the back.</p><p>“What are you doing?” The accusatory voice of Julie’s aunt, likely talking to Carlos, gives Reggie an idea. It might not be a good idea, but he is bored, and he needs something to do.</p><p>“I’m looking for ghosts! I know they’re here and this will help,” Carlos declares. Reggie sees him coming into the living room holding his tablet in front of himself, his aunt close behind.</p><p>“Mijo, ghosts aren’t real.” She tries to reason.</p><p>“I know that dad got a picture of them, and I’m going to prove it,” Carlos says, determination evident in both his voice and posture.</p><p>“Wait, watch this,” Reggie says to his friends, feeling giddy as he moves to the curtains. Focusing his energy on his hands, he manages to grab the string and begin a rapid pull and release. The rapid movement of the curtains pulls the pairs’ attention towards it, Carlos in awe and his aunt in fear. Alex and Luke sigh behind him, though he can tell they are trying not to laugh, at least Luke is.</p><p>With a few more pulls on the string, Reggie quickly moves to the blanket that was thrown over the couch. He simply picks it up and waves it through the air. It isn’t anything too special, but seeing their reactions is definitely worth it.  His aunt is frantically trying to pull Carlos from the room, coming close to screeching her discontent with the apparent ghost activity in her brother-in-law’s house.</p><p>“Reggie, that was absolutely terrible,” Alex admonishes him.</p><p>“What, I was just standing up for the kid. People shouldn’t try and discourage them, it’s wholly unnecessary,”</p><p>“Still, you almost gave Julie’s aunt a heart attack. Do you want her to forgive us?”</p><p>“You have a point, sorry,” Reggie says, thoroughly scolded. “It won’t happen again, but, for the record, that was funny as hell.” He drops himself back onto the chair, going through the throw pillow, which rests in his legs. Luke didn’t say anything, but Reggie could tell from his face that if he did Alex would have had two people to scold.</p><p>Once again, Reggie is bored, feeling a bit more drained than he did prior, likely due to focusing his energy during those tricks. He notes that it is weird to feel drained like this, having been operating at full ghost capacity for the last week. He decides that he is going to have to ask Luke and Alex if they have felt that yet, but later. When he really cares enough to ask or is even just not this tired.</p><p>“Ok, I’m just going to take a nap for a bit,” Reggie tries not to feel too excited when he actually yawns. “Wake me up when Julie’s back?” He leaves the house with the affirmatives from his friends, looking forward to the possibility that this nap might be longer than an hour.</p><p>+++</p><p>Luke wakes him up sometime later, Reggie’s internal clock has never been good so it could be anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.</p><p>“Julie’s back, we’re gonna tell her about the show.” Luke’s face is close enough that Reggie imagines he would be able to feel his breath if they had any. He is smiling brightly, glaringly white teeth on display.</p><p>“Shit, let’s go,” Reggie sits up quickly, forcing Luke back. He ignores the feeling in his stomach that he gets from this close intimacy Luke seems to enjoy, poofing into the hallway outside Julie’s room. Alex is already there, waiting, quickly joined by Luke.</p><p>Alex looks over the two, stepping forward to knock on Julie’s door.</p><p>“Can we come in?” Alex asks tentatively.</p><p>“Sure,” Julie answers, barely above a whisper. The three make their way into her room, seeing her glaring out the window.</p><p>“Man, what did that window do to you?” Reggie jokes, earning a pointed look from Alex.</p><p>“My dad grounded me ‘cause I failed a calculus test, which was a complete overreaction,” Julie groans. “It’s not like I’m failing on purpose, and I am working so hard to fix it,”</p><p>“That’s really shitty,” Luke says. “But we have an offer that isn’t so shitty.” He motions for Alex to take over, who readily takes up the space he left.</p><p>“To make up for missing your dance, which we all feel terrible about.” Alex quickly and gently pushes Reggie forward, letting him know to finish the offer.</p><p>“We signed up for an open mic night, tonight.” He smiles sheepishly at her blank face, unnervingly stoic. Reggie will never get used to her heavy emotions.</p><p>“I can’t, I’m <em>grounded</em>,” She says, giving the three of them a look that Reggie cannot quite decipher. He would like to imagine it being a “wow-thank-you-guys-so-much-I completely-forgive-you” look, but it is probably supposed to be something a bit harsher.</p><p>“Sure, you can, just sneak out, it’ll be fine.” Luke quickly brushes off her concerns with a wave of his hand, as if he were getting rid of them. Julie moves her glare from the group to point it solely at Luke, who returns a smile that Reggie can interpret as his intimidated face. An expression he has seen many times when Luke’s mother was trying to get him to do his chores after school, something he has a hard time imagining Julie causing.</p><p>“Come on, Jules – Julie,” Alex quickly corrects himself after Julie turns her glare at him. “This could be a big thing, and we feel really bad about standing you up on Friday, so will you let us make it up to you?”</p><p>“Oh, this is a big thing for you guys?” Julie says sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest. “Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you left me alone on that stage.”</p><p>“Julie, look, we didn’t mean to, and we’re so sorry for that, but this gig could be the difference between life and death,” Luke tries.</p><p>“Wow, that’s really amazing, I’m so glad that I know how selfish you are now.” She sounds seconds away from crying, and Reggie can just notice the crocodile tears that are about to fall. “Just get out of my room,” She pivots so that she is no longer facing them, her head bowed.</p><p>Once they are outside her door, Luke picks his head up, his eyes looking sad enough that Reggie can imagine the tears that would normally be seconds from falling, just like Julie’s.</p><p>“I’m gonna—" Luke does not finish his thought before he is disappearing from the hall.</p><p>“Do you think he…” Reggie trails off, not wanting to say it out loud.</p><p>“Probably, you know what day it is,” Alex responds, leaving Reggie alone in the hallway. He feels his heart get heavy as he thinks of Luke sitting in his parents’ house and watching them mourn him. Without thinking he quickly makes his way to Luke’s old house.</p><p>+++</p><p>Reggie feels creepy watching Luke with his family from their patio, but he needs to make sure that he is not completely destroying himself over how he left them. He can see Luke holding his knees to his chest as he sits fully on their counter, (something that used to get Emily swatting him until he got off) watching as his parents made their way around the kitchen, pulling out a cake. He notices that Luke’s eyes look a bit red, making him wonder if every ghost has a different set of powers.</p><p>When he decides that he has been watching them for too long Luke turns his head and freezes when he sees Reggie. Reggie feels tense when Luke motions him over, worried he is going to be reprimanded for following him and watching him at his most vulnerable.</p><p>“You could have come in, you didn’t need to stand out there,” Luke says, turning so his legs hang off the counter.</p><p>“I didn’t want to interrupt, you looked like you needed alone time,” Reggie says, longing to reach up and wipe the tears from Luke’s face.</p><p>“Hey, they’re your family too, besides, I want you here on my birthday.” Luke smiles sweetly, rubbing his knuckle over his eyes.</p><p>“Well, I’m happy to be here, whenever you need me,” Reggie tells him sincerely. Luke does not say anything in response, simply hopping off the counter and pulling Reggie into an unexpected hug. He buries his face in Reggie’s shoulder, holding onto him tightly. Reggie returns it in kind, hooking his own chin over Luke’s shoulder and reveling in the feeling of holding him. Luke only pulls away when his parents start singing happy birthday, going to join them at the table, blowing out the candles when they do.</p><p>Reggie takes in the moment, watching as Luke stands between his family as they forlornly slice up a cake in his honor.</p><p>+++</p><p>When they finally get back to the Molina’s they find both Alex and Julie sitting at their respective instruments, practicing the beginning of their previous set.</p><p>“Hey, glad you guys could make it, we only have a few hours before we have to go. Flynn is picking me up and I need to make sure that my dad sees me in my room before we leave, so let’s get playing!” Julie smiles at them. They quickly get their instruments out, Reggie giving a questioning look to Alex who only gives him a wink that could mean anything. He settles on asking him about it later.  Without another word, Julie counts them into Now or Never and it feels like they never even stopped playing, even though it had only been a few days since they last played together.</p><p>After a short run through to pick up their songs again, Julie is rushing back to her house, promising to meet them at the coffee shop with Flynn.</p><p>“That was something, Alex, what’d you do, man?” Luke asks.</p><p>Alex shrugs, “I just showed her that she had some misconceptions, and she was ready to forgive us, mostly.”</p><p>“Well, good job.” Luke smiles, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “The bands back together!” Luke laughs, infectious as always. Reggie ignores the small gymnast that has permanently made a home in his stomach whenever he is around Luke and shuffles them all out of the studio and towards the shop.</p><p>+++</p><p>The coffee shop is packed when they arrive, one of the first groups already performing. The audience looks captivated by their performance, though it is a simple acoustic set, with each member looking the epitome of hipster with flannel and black-rimmed glasses.</p><p>They find Julie and Flynn towards the counter, heads tilted together in an almost intimate way, and start making their way over. Julie quickly spots them, pointing out their general direction to Flynn, who looks like she is still holding on to a bit of the anger from Friday.</p><p>When they finally get to them, Luke says, “Looking good, Julie, might want to straighten your shirt though,” He reaches out to help her, Reggie feeling a bout of jealousy at the motion, vindication winning out when he sees Luke’s fingers go through the fabric.</p><p>“Oh, thanks, Luke.” Julie gives him a sweet smile, and Reggie is sure that he can see a faint blush on her cheeks.</p><p> “What did he do?” Flynn asks, her hostile stance seeming to fade with Julie’s smile appearing. Julie just waves it off as unimportant.</p><p>“So, it seems like everyone is just doing one song, what do you guys think we should play?”</p><p>“Oh, definitely When We’re Older,” Alex has a smirk on his face that Reggie is sure means something, especially when he sees Luke seemingly choke on his tongue and turn to swat Alex, but he is lost on what. He feels a bit left out at not understanding what their tussle is about, but figures it is probably because Luke feels embarrassed about the implications of his song.</p><p>“I agree, it’s a really great song,” Julie says, which appears to cause a little bit of color to rise on Luke’s cheeks. Before anyone can say anything else on it, the emcee is on the stage and announcing the next group.</p><p>Five girls in sparkly outfits make their way onto the stage. Reggie recognizes them as the group that they saw performing at Julie’s high school, and he can tell from Julie and Flynn’s expressions that they do not like them that much.</p><p>Reggie focuses his attention on their performance. Overtaken with their pop sound and flashy dance moves, he can’t help but bob his head along to the beat.</p><p>He feels someone slap his arm, and he turns to face Alex’s pointed look, telling him that he should not be doing what he is doing.</p><p>“What, it’s a catchy song,” He defends himself, turning back to the performance and trying to keep his enjoyment in check.</p><p>When the group finishes, the emcee is back on the stage.</p><p>“And now, for our final group of the evening, we have Julie and the Phantoms,” He exits the stage, giving Julie an encouraging smile as she makes her way onto it, taking her spot behind the provided keyboard.</p><p>“Um, hi, this is our first performance, so we hope you enjoy, this is When We’re Older.” Julie immediately goes into her slow chord progression, her eyes closed and letting her body sway slightly.</p><p>It does not take long for Julie to reach the end of her solo, bringing in the rest of them with a soft rock beat. The crowd seems to go crazy at that, a few whistles and scattered applause welcome them to the stage. Reggie can see the smirk that Luke cannot seem to keep off his face whenever he is playing for a crowd and he can hear Alex’s contentment in his playing with confident hits on his drums.</p><p>When Julie starts singing, he feels a shift in the air as something seems to settle into place both within their little group and into the audience in front of them. Luke’s voice joins hers and the shift seems to settle into something solid. Reggie is sure that this performance is going to be the catalyst for big changes in all of their lives and he feels grateful that he is sharing it with people that he considers family.</p><p>
  <strong>“Your smile is weakness, but know that weak is just a word for how you feel when you encounter so much sweetness”</strong>
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